Published 2:10 pm Monday, August 17, 2026 MOULTRIE — “Data centers are coming” has been a much repeated refrain across the U.S. over the past few years. However, when it comes to what data centers actually are and how they work, the waters seem to be a little muddy to the average resident. To clear up some of the myths surrounding data centers, an expert was brought in by local entities. Speaking of “waters,” one of the top concerns in South Georgia, where agriculture is the number one industry, has been the data centers’ use of water. Senior Economic Developer Alan Durham of Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research spoke to that concern when he addressed the audience Thursday afternoon, August 13. “The technology is improving and improving. And the people that are complaining about the water usage are thinking about the old bitcoin data centers. This is a completely different world,” he said. According to Durham, the newer data centers do not need the amount of water that the older models did to cool their computer servers, storage systems and other equipment. He explained the different methods used to cool data centers including evaporative cooling, a closed loop system, direct-to-chip and indirect evaporative cooling. He said, evaporative cooling was like the misters used at fairs and outside events where they have an air conditioner set at about 60 degrees and add a wet mist so that it draws the heat out. He remarked that water and electricity don’t mix…
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