A hyperscale data center may be coming to Allegheny County.
Allegheny DC Property Co. is planning a massive data center in Springdale, Pennsylvania. The proposed center will be 565,000 square feet with a 200,000 square-foot cooling plant and would serve big tech companies like Amazon and Meta. Residents and environmental advocates are concerned about pollution, rising electric bills and water strain.
The data center is expected to draw up to 180 megawatts of power, which would be enough to power 150,000 homes. For context, there are about 160,000 homes in Pittsburgh.
About 70 Springdale residents recently voiced concerns about pollution, water usage and electricity needs at a borough planning commission meeting on Sept. 24. After hearing the community’s worries, the Springdale planning commission was delayed from recommending the project to the town council until Oct. 8.
In Virginia, the data center capital of the world, the centers use about a quarter of the state’s total power consumption. Virginia’s electric prices are continuously rising due to the data centers, according to Lauren Posey, an environmental policy advocate for the citizens working group Protect PT, which serves Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties.
“It’s definitely a concern that these large data centers will increase stress on the grid[s], contribute to more blackouts in high demand periods and raise costs for ordinary residents and small businesses,” Posey said.
Despite environmental concerns, Governor Josh Shapiro and other state and local officials have pushed for data center growth. Councilmen in Springdale have tacked on their support as well.
According to Posey, public officials tend to support data centers regardless of political party, while residents resist in the same bipartisan fashion.
“I think it’s really a divide between people at the top — politicians, tech companies, the ones who have interests or investments tied to this — they’re saying this is the next big thing,” Posey said. “[Residents are] ultimately just concerned about the impact on themselves, their family, their community.”
Springdale residents have been actively speaking against the data center since the project was proposed. According to Posey, these concerns are because developers have not yet addressed the potential negatives of the center’s construction.
“No one’s giving a concrete plan as to how we can do this without facing the potential negative ramifications, and people are noticing that that’s missing in messaging from their leaders,” Posey said.
Allegheny DC Property Co. is being “bankrolled” by a large New York-based hedge fund, according to Posey. Allegheny DC Property Co. is controlled by Davidson Kempner, an investment firm with $36 billion in assets with offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Posey said this means the developer likely does not care much about the local community’s needs.
“There’s usually a company with a random, localized, unwieldy name, and they’re usually backed by some sort of very powerful investor,” Posey said. “It’s outside interests coming in, seeing the resources and wanting to capitalize on it. Historically, those entities don’t always have the best interests of the community in mind.”
The Springdale Borough Planning Commission held meetings from August to October about the proposed data center. At multiple meetings, residents directly spoke to the development company with concerns about light and air pollution, alongside rising electric bills — their top worry, according to Posey.
“I would say the number one [concern for residents] would be the chance for their electric bills to go up,” Posey said. “People’s bills are already going up. The economy is not great right now. The last thing people want is another rising expense on their plate.”
Data center development is rising in Pennsylvania because of its natural gas and nuclear energy sources, which may be the largest environmental concern. Many old natural gas and coal plants have been converted to supply energy for data centers.
“[Right] now, there’s a big push for expanded gas and expanded fracking in our area to support data centers, and [southwestern PA] is a region that’s already very heavily developed by oil and gas,” Posey said.
Politicians have touted job growth as a major benefit of building more data centers. A consultant for Allegheny DC said the data center, once built, will employ 80-100 people.
Posey is skeptical of this reported employee number because she has seen larger data centers in the U.S. that permanently employed 30 people.
The Town Council will host a public hearing on Oct. 16 at the Springdale Borough Building on 325 School Street, where it could vote to approve the project proposal, depending on community pushback.