FuelCell Energy CEO says communities deserve a say on AI power projects

Jason Few argues data center proposals should be judged on their real-world effects, not dismissed on sight AI needs electricity, and lots of it. The people who live next to the buildings that consume it would like a word. FuelCell Energy President and CEO Jason Few is leaning into that tension instead of dodging it. In a recent Bloomberg interview, he said local communities should have a voice in data center projects. He also argued those projects deserve to be evaluated on what they actually do, rather than being turned away simply because of what they are. The concerns on the table Few addressed three public worries that keep surfacing around AI infrastructure: higher utility bills, water consumption and reliance on fossil-fuel infrastructure. Few’s argument is not that these concerns are wrong. It is that they should be tested against the specifics of each project. A proposal that strains the local grid is a different animal from one that generates its own power on site. A data center on old mining land The conversation centered on a proposed project in Newport Township, Pennsylvania. FuelCell Energy is lined up to supply the power there, but it is not the developer. That role ...