Bemidji group hosts forum on hyperscale data centers
Bemidji residents will hear how hyperscale data centers could affect land, water and power before any local proposal is on the table.
Indivisible Bemidji will bring the debate over hyperscale data centers into a public setting Thursday evening at Headwaters Music and Arts, where the group says residents will hear why the projects are drawing resistance and what other Minnesota communities are facing. The forum comes as utility demand, water use and zoning questions have become central to a new class of development that could reshape land use in Beltrami County.
The event, titled “Hyperscale Data Centers: Straight Talk,” is set for 6 to 7 p.m. June 25 at 519 Minnesota Ave. NW in Bemidji. Irna Landrum of the Kairos Fellowship, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit focused on technology accountability, is listed as the speaker. Indivisible Bemidji says the presentation will explain why people are resisting hyperscale data-center development, how to take action, and what is happening in other Minnesota communities.
That matters in a county where big infrastructure decisions can ripple far beyond one parcel. Hyperscale data centers can require large amounts of land, heavy electricity loads and substantial water for cooling, raising questions about how utilities would be planned, who would pay for upgrades and what kind of local oversight would apply before a project ever reached formal review.
Minnesota lawmakers have already moved to create a specific regulatory category for the industry. The 2025 data-center law established a “large-scale data center” class for projects of at least 25,000 square feet and at least $250 million in investment within 60 months. It also extended the sales-tax exemption for qualifying equipment for up to 35 years and removed the earlier sunset date of June 30, 2042.
The same law added new conditions. Starting July 1, 2025, purchases of electricity do not qualify for the exemption. Large-scale data centers also face annual electricity-demand fees ranging from $2 million to $5 million, depending on peak demand, along with pre-application evaluation for projects that would use more than 100 million gallons of water per year.
Water has emerged as one of the sharpest concerns in state policy discussions. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the League of Minnesota Cities have said data centers can use large volumes of water for cooling equipment, sometimes comparable to a small city’s needs. Lawmakers this spring also proposed requiring hyperscale data centers and other large water users to secure their own water permits instead of relying on city permits.
A recent legislative report said Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are among companies exploring Minnesota data-center sites. For Bemidji and surrounding communities, Thursday’s forum is a chance to hear those statewide debates translated into local terms before any proposal lands in Beltrami County.
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