TL;DRGeorgia Power is demolishing homes for AI data centre power lines as Big Tech promises everyone an AI agent
Georgia Power is using eminent domain to seize more than 330 properties across Coweta and Fayette counties to build a 35-mile transmission line for its Project Wansley expansion. Between 20 and 30 homes will be demolished to make way for the power corridor. Roughly 80 percent of the new generating capacity the utility is adding will serve data centres, according to Fortune.
The $16 billion grid expansion is one of the largest in Georgia’s history, driven almost entirely by the electricity demands of artificial intelligence. Two days before the demolition plans drew national attention, Mark Zuckerberg predicted on Meta’s earnings call that within five years, billions of people would each have a personal AI agent handling their finances, health, and relationships.
The infrastructure required to deliver that promise is already reshaping the lives of people who will likely never use an AI agent. Residents in the transmission line’s path told Fortune that Georgia Power’s compensation offers ran roughly $100,000 below their properties’ market value. The utility has said condemnation represents less than one percent of its total land acquisitions.
