Data Center Urbanism in Silicon Valley: Load-Based Accumulation and Ecological Accommodation

Data centers increasingly restructure urban infrastructure and environmental governance. This analysis compares how two municipalities in Silicon Valley absorb computational expansion into planning and utility regimes. Drawing on official records and reviews, it identifies two mechanisms: load-based accumulation and ecological accommodation. Santa Clara exemplifies load-based accumulation by converting electricity sales into municipal revenue via its municipal utility. Lacking its own utility, San José extracts value through property taxation and conditional land use agreements while coordinating grid access with PG&E. Across both places, current mitigation addresses site-specific impacts but may not account for resource consumption and impacts across administrative domains.