NASHVILLE — The Nashville Zoo launched a petition and voiced opposition to a proposed 50-megawatt DC BLOX data center planned for a site adjacent to its property. The zoo cited concerns regarding animal welfare and potential community impacts.

More than 500,000 signatures were collected on the petition within four weeks. Rick Schwartz, CEO of the Nashville Zoo, stated, "We're not against data centers; we're just against it here." Country music artist Brad Paisley called the project "an absolute nightmare."

The proposed facility from DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based digital infrastructure company, is designed to have a capacity of 50 megawatts. The company plans to build the data center in phases, starting with a roughly 70,000 square-foot facility, followed by a second phase adding a building measuring approximately 261,000 square feet. DC BLOX states the data center will utilize a closed-loop cooling system and limit sound levels at the property line to 65 decibels.

Costa Samaras, Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, said, "In Tennessee, 1 megawatt can power about 630 average homes, so this 50-megawatt data center could consume the same power as about 31,500 Tennessee homes." He added, "I think this is indicative of the type of interactions that data centers are now finding themselves having to deal with: concerned communities because of larger concerns around power, noise, emissions, water and other impacts."

The Nashville Zoo houses over 3,000 animals, including elephants and cassowaries. The clouded leopard exhibit, located closest to the proposed data center site, is part of a 30-year hand-rearing program. During the most recent breeding season, the zoo was the only U.S. institution to successfully breed clouded leopards. A previous tenant also operated a data center on the same property.