CHAMBERSBURG – Reports have shown that as many as 23 data centers are being planned for a 754 acre tract of land outside of Allentown, PA, in Northampton County.
It would be the equivalent of 530 football fields.
Apparently, this is going to happen.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll pointed out, “Once again, it’s one of these mysterious LLCs. No one really knows who the developer would be, but we know the four or five big names that it likely would be. This will create a tremendous strain out in that part of the state on certain infrastructure, and it will also be possibly the biggest data center campus in the state.”
There is a data center being installed in the Harrisburg area, but the one near Allentown would be even bigger.
Barkdoll said, “But there’s all these conflicting things that no one wants these things in their backyard, but yet the government is encouraging these things to keep getting developed, and I think these big developers see the opportunity because regulations are coming, but they see the opportunity to swoop in if they can get a huge tract of land like this, prime development, and it’ll take them a year or so to get that all up and online. But it looks like it’s going to happen.”
Michele Jansen of News Talk 103.7FM noted, “The scale and the size are what makes a difference too. And it looks like trying to discern this from just a quick query, the one, the South Allentown proposal, that one is not so big. It’s an 80 megawatt capacity, but then they’re the bigger one, the 1.48 million square feet. You know, that’s a 725 megawatt (facility), and then an even bigger one is the one in Butler Township, Highridge Business Park. That’s 1.2 gigawatts. Now that’s where you’re really going to have the strain on the grid and the capacity, and I’m interested to see what demands can they even make on them bringing in their own power and upgrading the grid without it costing taxpayers.”
Barkdoll added, “That is missing from that reporting, and I would think that has to be part of their land development plan. Some of these super scale data centers, like we’re talking about, they’re supplying their own electricity or their own energy source. That’s one of Shapiro’s proposals now. Let them come in, but they have to supply their own energy. Not clear out there where this energy would come from, and maybe they’re pulling some from the grid. Maybe they’re installing some of their own things to make this happen.”