AI is spurring expansion of high-voltage power lines. Landowners, locals fight back
ABC News
Bigger and bigger data centers are leading to proposals for massive electric power transmission lines, sometimes across hundreds of miles
SUGARLOAF, Pa. -- For John Zola, the 40 acres were like a paradise: apple orchards tucked into northern Pennsylvania's rolling hills, a barn, meadows and more than enough land for four houses: one for himself and his wife and each of his three adult children.
It’s been “hell,” however, since a contractor hired by the local power utility knocked on Zola's door in late 2024 and informed him that it planned to build a 500-kilovolt power line through his property.
The 240-foot metal towers would reach 10 times as high as the century-old apple trees they'd plow through and loom over the Zolas' homes and the basketball court and swimming pool where his grandchildren play.
This line and others like it are being planned in accelerating numbers in the United States to deliver power, sometimes across hundreds of miles, to enormous data centers run by the world's biggest tech companies.
Although advances in artificial intelligence are seen by President Donald Trump as critical to the nation’s economic and national security, their energy needs are threatening to overwhelm the power grid — and people like Zola are caught in the middle.
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Bigger and bigger data centers are leading to proposals for massive electric power transmission lines, sometimes across hundreds of miles