What about Hydro?

The region around Data Center Alley is blessed with a number of majestic rivers, HOWEVER ... ...

Hydroelectric power is clean, does not emit greenhouse gases, and is renewable, right? One reason for Data Centers in the Columbia River basin out west. In the region surrounding Data Center Alley, there is only one major hydro plant: The Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna:

It was built in 1928 and currently generates around 550 MW of power. It feeds that power into a northeast grid, much of which serves Philadelphia and Baltimore. The grid also reaches the Washington, DC area.

The Dam is reaching the end of its design lifetime. The reservoir has silted up, not just with “silt” but toxic runoff from a century of intensive agriculture, mostly in Pennsylvania. It has an uncertain future:

There are a other dams on the Susquehanna, including one at Safe Harbor, which was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad to power its electrified line to Harrisburg. It generators put out power at 25 Hz! (There are techniques that covert the power to 60 Hz.) There are also one or two very modest power plants nearby: on the middle Potomac, the Cacapon River, and the Shenandoah. The power they generate may not overcome the environmental impact of these small dams.

In 1983, the historian of technology Thomas Parke Hughes published Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society 1880-1930. It was a major tour de force and set the tone of the discipline of the History of Technology for years after it appeared. The “Networks” of course, were for electricity, not for computers. I mention this book because a major focus of the book dealt with the politics and technology of the Conowingo Dam!

Hydro power does not seem to be viable as a means to power Data Center Alley.