Rural Washington has become the epicenter of the power boom, as AI companies flock to the state’s small towns to set up shop.
Along the way, electricians have found an unlikely hotspot in rural Washington, where data centers have been built to harness the area’s power resources.
As AI continues to develop, it will require an enormous amount of electricity and computing.
Traveling electricians found their best job opportunities in a triangle of cities — Wenatchee, Quincy and Malaga — in Washington, about 140 miles from Seattle, where an abundance of hydropower comes from dams along the Columbia River.
A life on the road may not sound glamorous, but their work of overtime, bonuses and 60-hour weeks can earn them as much as $2,800 a week after taxes.
A traveling electrician, Mr. Bennett, came from Erin, Tennessee. A ‘middle of nowhere city’ where he had to travel to see more, build more and earn more.
In central Washington he earns twice as much as he does at home.
“Our whole MO is to go to a big job like this, work six days a week for months, and then actually go home,” he told the newspaper. New York Times.
The activities of data centers and electrical works transformed the cities in the area. Rumor had it that a farmer had sold his land for a data center and then bought three Porches, one red, one white and one blue.
Traveling electricians found their best job opportunities in a triangle of Washington cities, where an abundance of hydropower comes from dams along the Columbia River
The activities of data centers and electrical works transformed the cities in the area. Rumor had it that a farmer had sold his land for a data center and then bought three verandas, one red, one white and one blue.
The city of Quincy also has a new high school built with property taxes that one union official described as “just data center money.”
But while the agricultural city is rich, its residents are not. At their shiny new high school, four out of five students still qualify for free lunch. The poverty rate has fallen over the past decade, but little is known about the extent to which opportunities will expand to meet the rising cost of living.
Washington is made up of unionized workers, a requirement for a state tax break that has saved tech companies nearly half a billion dollars. The electricity trade union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, is being asked for help and plans to train hundreds more students.
Microsoft alone has said they will need more than 2,300 electricians in the coming years.
The small, rural town of Quincy, population 8,315, was completely transformed after being hit by floods at the end of the last Ice Age.
What became their beacon of power was carved out by floodwaters after a mile-wide ice dam on a glacial lake near Missoula, Montana, failed repeatedly, sending water rushing downhill.
The water took just two days to make its way through Washington and Oregon before reaching the Pacific Ocean. The floods created narrow, vertically walled gorges that provided their incredible source of hydropower a century ago.
However, the poor area could not afford to build a dam. With the help of George Washington’s great-great-grandnephew, who worked as a lawyer for the utility company and brokered a deal, according to the New York Times.
Washington is made up of unionized workers, a requirement for a state tax break that has saved tech companies nearly half a billion dollars. The electricity trade union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, is being asked for help and plans to train hundreds more apprentices
The region’s richer areas helped finance dam construction, but in return were stuck with cheap hydropower for half a century.
The deal expired in 2005, just as major technology companies began looking for places to build their data centers.
“When the data centers said, ‘We need energy,’” Mr. Ybarra, a local utility worker, remembers. “We said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve got plenty.'”
In 2006, Microsoft purchased about 80 acres of fields in Quincy, but work was quickly halted by the Great Recession.
An employee at that data center, Matthew Hepner, recalled catching gophers “for two dollars a tail to get by.”
About two years later, the region welcomed the likes of Yahoo and other tech names to set up shop.
In 2006, Washington state introduced its first data center sales tax credit to encourage construction. With handshake agreements, many used union workers for years. Hepner said, “It worked for a while, but companies do what companies do: try to reduce costs.”
Still, the tax breaks came again in 2022, Hepner added: “We were like, ‘It ends now or this tax break goes away.’
Four of the largest tech companies spent more than $200 billion on capital expenditures last year, much of it to build new data centers. They are expected to spend as much or even more next year
The three clusters are of strategic importance, the outlet reports. Each is located in a different province, with its own utility and power supply, and there are approximately 50 data center buildings, with more than 1,500 electricians working in the region
However, the tax breaks did not stop companies looking for power, land and labor.
Four of the largest tech companies spent more than $200 billion on capital expenditures last year, much of it to build new data centers. According to the New York Times, they are expected to spend as much or even more next year.
The data centers spread from Quincy to East Wenatchee and recently made their way to Malaga using transmission lines feeding a shuttered aluminum plant.
The three clusters are of strategic importance, the outlet reports. Each is located in a different province, with their own utilities and power, and there are approximately 50 data center buildings, with more than 1,500 electricians in the region.
The data centers have also significantly increased the overall property value in the area. According to Ybarra, this means that 75 percent of the taxes are paid by the data centers.
However, the influx of workers has also brought an abundance of customers for local businesses.
Sharyl Smith, the owner of Monkey N’ Around Pizza, said the weekly union nights have been her “savior.” With enough staff to serve beer and special home-cooked meals, it sold out in 30 minutes last Thursday.
However, not everyone is in favor of the data center craze. The RV park’s owner, Mitch Molitor, serves the steady stream of traveling electricians, but worries the booming business won’t create jobs in the long run.
The data centers have also significantly increased the overall property value in the area. According to Ybarra, this means that 75 percent of the taxes are paid by the data centers
“They use a lot of land and use a lot of power,” he said. “I like to see things that have a greater return on investment for the community.”
Concerns were also raised as house prices continue to rise. This past year, Douglas County, which includes East Wenatchee, saw a median home price of $519,000, which increased 18 percent in just one year.
Stacie de Mestre, a director at a regional port authority, said the area was deep in a housing crisis.
“I know everyone says they have one, but there really is one here,” she said.
Jesus Zafra, 36, said he and his grandfather picked stones in the fields where the data centers now stand. “When our relatives came to work, you could find a whole house for about $600,” he said. ‘Before the data centers.’
But Zafra has made a fair contribution to the industry and listed his previous jobs: Microsoft. Microsoft. Microsoft. Microsoft. Maserati. And then CyrusOne.
Finding the industry good for him, he ate his meals out and said, “See these wire men driving these fancy trucks? I’m one of them.’
However, Zafra said he had family who were priced out of Quincy.
“It’s sad, you know, but at the same time I’m part of the problem because I’m working on it,” he said.
According to Zafra, the construction process generates a lot of employment, but once the locations are operational, they will only employ a few dozen workers.
However, there are concerns that the labor market created by the data centers is not green, and neither is the power supply.
There is hope that certain rumors will spread to give the area more work in the future.
Bob Allen, a union representative, heard that Quincy might get a new 500-megawatt transmission line from a federal energy authority. “That would give us another 10 years of work,” he told the New York Times.
Other hopes lie with Helion, a nuclear fusion startup that has a deal with Microsoft, to build its first substation at the Malaga site.
Microsoft’s Williams said the company has made efforts to address union uncertainty about future work, saying, “Hey, you know what, in a few years we’re still going to be building and we’re still going to need electricians.” ‘