{"id":44064,"date":"2025-11-11T01:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44064\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:05:10","slug":"mapping-the-dozens-of-data-centers-in-san-antonio-city-council-to-consider-first-request-for-center-policy-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44064\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping the dozens of data centers in San Antonio; City Council to consider first request for center policy planning"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 District 6 councilmember Ric Galvan filed the city\u2019s first policy proposal request<\/a> to examine the exponential growth of data centers in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Data centers, which house the computer systems that power our online activities and services, have garnered controversy for reports of their extensive use of water and energy resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Galvan, there are nearly 50 data centers either completed or planned to break ground in the San Antonio region.<\/p>\n

With nearly 15 centers in District 6, San Antonio\u2019s far west and northwest sides have the highest concentration of data centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worth the conversation given that we are one of the largest markets for new development of data centers in the state,\u201d Galvan said.<\/p>\n

Below is a map that KSAT created to pinpoint San Antonio\u2019s data centers based on a dataset provided by Galvan\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Data Centers Map<\/p>\n

Name
\n Size (acres) \u2195
\n Status\/Timeline \u2195<\/p>\n

Some locations, such as the Microsoft Texas Research Park just west of State Highway 211, are campuses that hold multiple data centers that belong to a single company.<\/p>\n

Other smaller \u201ccolocation\u201d data centers, like CityNAP<\/a> downtown, rent space to companies like Netflix or Verizon to share temporary housing and connections for their operations.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers want to know how data centers affect resources, quality of life<\/p>\n

In Galvan\u2019s Council Consideration Request (CCR), which was filed last month, he cited a policy brief from the Houston Advanced Research Center<\/a> that predicted Texas data centers would consume 46 billion gallons of water this year.<\/p>\n

Sarah Kirkle, director of policy & legislative affairs for the Texas Water Association, said, \u201cIt\u2019s been a real challenge to get our arms around how much water data centers use and need from a statewide level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, a lot of those (data centers), how much water they use, is often proprietary information that those folks don\u2019t really want to share,\u201d she told KSAT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additional tracking by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)<\/a> found that approximately 70% of the largest energy requests in the state are from data centers.<\/p>\n

In his request, Galvan expressed a need for the City Council to proactively plan and determine the policy tools the city has to keep up with this rapid growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing we can possibly do here is that as more data centers come online, we\u2019re seeing larger requests for energy or water usage that largely impacts our residents,\u201d he told KSAT.<\/p>\n

Galvan said that residents deserve answers to how these developments could impact natural resources and quality of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can we do to make sure these entities are providing benefits in the area? How do you make sure that they\u2019re reducing impact to the environment overall? How can you make sure that the energy of water usage here be used effectively as possible?,\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

>> WATCH BELOW: The impact of billion-dollar data centers in water-stressed Medina County<\/p>\n

The request outlines possible partnerships between municipal utilities and local research institutions to provide greater transparency on the centers\u2019 water and energy use.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent companies all communicate differently but what we\u2019ve seen nationally, as well as here in the state, is that there\u2019s been a little bit of secrecy in terms of how much energy intensity their operations are going to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Galvan continued, \u201cI believe that with our municipally owned utilities, we should have the ability to ask those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CCR was supported by Councilmembers Edward Mungia (D4), Teri Castillo (D5), Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) and Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8).<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 District 6 councilmember Ric Galvan filed the city\u2019s first policy proposal request to examine the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,3084,5421,19452,2327,19453,82,84,83,410,2098],"class_list":{"0":"post-44064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-bexar-county","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-data-center","11":"tag-district-6","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-ric-galvan","14":"tag-san-antonio","15":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","16":"tag-san-antonio-news","17":"tag-water","18":"tag-west-side"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}