data centre fundamentals.

the buildings that make ai possible. what they are, what they consume, where they get built, and who carries the costs and who carries the benefits.

this course exists because the environmental and community costs of ai infrastructure deserve an honest account. the industry moves fast and talks loudly. the consequences move quietly: a planning application here, a grid connection agreement there, a water abstraction licence that nobody reads.

four short lessons. read in order or pick the one you need. no sign-in. no funnel.

• lesson 01
  what is a data centre?.
  the physical foundation. before energy, water, siting, and responsibility, you need to understand what these buildings actually are and what they consume.
• lesson 02
  energy and the grid.
  how electricity grids work, what a grid connection actually involves, why ai infrastructure is a structural challenge, and what renewable energy claims actually mean.
• lesson 03
  water.
  the environmental cost nobody talks about. how cooling systems consume water, what the numbers actually mean, and why planning processes almost never ask the right questions.
• lesson 04
  siting, planning, and community.
  where data centres get built and why, what planning can actually do about it, how data sovereignty shapes location decisions, and who carries the costs and who carries the benefits.

when you've worked through the four lessons, the should you? course connects the technical reality back to the decisions in your organisation.

should you? · level 1 → · take the diagnostic →