Addressing the proliferation of local data centers, including multiple campuses proposed on adjacent parcels of land in Archbald, Diorio explained the industry also tends to cluster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s value in having buildings being able to talk to each other, having campuses being able to talk to each other, working off similar infrastructure and the connectedness of the industry in and of itself,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is a common theme throughout the country, no matter what market you\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n
While artificial intelligence is a key growth driver within the industry, the majority of data centers are being built for the cloud, Diorio said. He described the cloud as \u201cthe underpinning of the entire 21st-century economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Microsoft, through the website for its cloud computing platform Azure, defines the cloud as \u201ca vast online storage space where people and businesses store their files and applications, accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.\u201d The cloud provides on-demand access to computing resources and services over the internet, according to Microsoft. Essentially, if someone uploads photos or videos to a cloud service like Apple iCloud or Google Drive, they are stored somewhere in a data center.<\/p>\n
More broadly, Diorio said the cloud is used for services like electronic healthcare records, banking and finance, telehealth and online classrooms.<\/p>\n
\u2018Very challenging\u2019<\/p>\n
Diorio expects less than a quarter of data centers will materialize, though it depends on individual developers and other factors.<\/p>\n
Factors include longer and longer timelines to secure power, a lack of available materials and \u201cnew entrants\u201d in the industry making it more difficult to determine whether a project is real or speculative, Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will admit that we are very challenged in the data center industry by what I diplomatically term \u2018new entrants\u2019 to the marketplace,\u201d Diorio said. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate enough to represent leading data center owners and operators. These are companies that have been building data centers for decades. They know how to do this. \u2026 But there are others, these new entrants to the marketplace, that don\u2019t have that level of experience and insight, and that can be very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some data center developers in Northeast Pennsylvania tout prior experience with the facilities, other companies\u2019 proposed campuses represent their first ventures into the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see these new entrants to the marketplace that are coming into these clusters, and they don\u2019t necessarily have the level of experience or sophistication that that our members do,\u201d Diorio said.<\/p>\n
Established firms with decades of experience understand how to develop data centers, how to ramp up the facilities as they come online, and they are \u201cconstantly calibrating to the demand that they\u2019re seeing, to ensure that they\u2019re building out their infrastructure appropriately,\u201d Diorio said. New entrants may lack that expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hyperbolic, but it\u2019s not too far off to say sometimes these were companies that were building residential homes six months ago, and now they\u2019re trying to be data center developers,\u201d he said. \u201cThat presents a challenge, because there are inherent frictions that come in with a company that\u2019s not as sophisticated in knowing how these things ramp. They\u2019re looking at the marketplace saying, \u2018I need to get in and sell this land off. I need to get power and then sell this land off to a known developer,\u2019 and that skews the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a challenge when forecasting how much water and electricity the campuses use, Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can utilities and regulators effectively evaluate who is proposing these projects? Do they have a history of development? Have they built a data center before?\u201d he said. \u201cHow well capitalized are they so that utilities and regulators can really risk these projects appropriately, or de-risk these projects appropriately? Are they moving through the permitting process so that they can accurately know which projects are real and which projects are perhaps more speculative?\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies with development experience for projects like commercial office buildings and industrial sites bring with them more experience and a better skillset when approaching public stakeholders, Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the bad examples that get held up as the symbols of the industry, not necessarily the best examples that we have where we see investment in the community that has transformed the local budget, that has transformed the local schools, that has helped reduce taxes for others, that has created significant amounts of new skilled trade jobs within the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Troubling optics\u2019<\/p>\n
Data center developers absolutely have to engage with the public and hold stakeholder meetings, Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to do broad education on what the project is and what the project isn\u2019t, how it\u2019s going to use resources wisely, how it won\u2019t increase your energy bill, how it will be one of the most water-efficient industries throughout the economy, and ultimately, what it means for local budgets and affordability questions in the community, and how it will invest in jobs,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really is incumbent upon the industry to continue to do that robust stakeholder engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about his perspective on large clusters of data centers near parks, homes and schools, such as the 30 proposed data centers along the Eynon Jermyn Road corridor in Archbald, Diorio acknowledged projects can present \u201ctroubling optics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s important to point out that data centers follow every applicable law and regulation from the federal, state and local level \u2014 they don\u2019t get a free pass on development,\u201d he said, later adding about Archbald, \u201cThat is troubling optics. There\u2019s no question about that, and I think in many ways, it can be be hard to defend and just say, \u2018We follow the laws that that we are required to follow, just like any large development would.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Data centers seek out sites with the infrastructure to support them, like high-voltage power lines and fiber-optic lines, and locations with that infrastructure tend to be industrial, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say that a data center shouldn\u2019t be developed in a place where it\u2019s legally allowed to do so, but of course, I think it\u2019s incumbent upon the company to work very closely with the local leadership to address the unique concerns that that individual parcel may have, whether it be proximity to certain residential areas or schools or parks or those types of things, to ensure that the project itself is not going to be a detriment or not a responsible partner in those areas,\u201d Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Worst-case scenario\u2019<\/p>\n
Diorio also believes there are misconceptions about the industry, including surrounding utility use and projections.<\/p>\n
Water and electricity demands represent two of the major concerns surrounding data centers.<\/p>\n
Diorio stressed that when data centers have extremely high water estimates, they plan not only for their peak use, but also worst-case scenarios.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s where the alarmist portion of it comes in, which is, they may use up to this amount in a single day, but that really reflects the worst-case scenario,\u201d he said, explaining actual water usage is \u201cvirtually always\u201d less.<\/p>\n
Electric utilities have to have the power generation available first to ensure continuity of power before supplying a data center. The DCC sees timelines for power delivery moving further out in large markets like Virginia, with projects waiting up to seven years before receiving power, Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to serve the customer, but certainly you don\u2019t have to provide power to the customer until you reasonably can \u2014 until you have the infrastructure to serve them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One of the challenges with new entrants, Diorio said, is that they come in with high power demands, and they want the power immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is just very much not how the industry works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Data centers don\u2019t require peak power immediately, Diorio said. Instead, loads ramp up over time as buildings come online and customers move in.<\/p>\n
Water and electricity also have inverse relationships, where using less water for cooling requires more electricity and vice versa, he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to predict daily water consumption, but the industry has been actively implementing water-efficient technologies for years, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we see is data centers use less water than semiconductor manufacturing, than food and beverage production,\u201d Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Real need\u2019<\/p>\n
As remnants of Northeast Pennsylvania\u2019s coal mining heritage still mar the local landscape, elected officials and residents routinely draw parallels between the coal industry and data centers. Just like culm dump that lingers decades after a colliery shut down, critics of data centers question what will happen to the structures when they close. Proposed data centers are often two stories with footprints exceeding 130,000 square feet.<\/p>\n
The data center industry isn\u2019t seeing buildings hitting their end of life, Diorio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, data centers are taking, or have taken over, older buildings and refurbishing them into a data center,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As technology continues to improve and become more efficient, the DCC expects data centers to remain operational for the long term, with buildings having potential lifetimes of 30-plus years, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are buildings for the long haul,\u201d he said. \u201cAs long as demand continues to increase, which there\u2019s no signs of it slowing, there\u2019s going to be a need for data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re getting crushed\u2019<\/p>\n
Presiding over the borough council in Lackawanna County\u2019s data center hotspot, Archbald council President Louis Rapoch praised the notion of only a fraction of data centers materializing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t that be nice?\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019d have some people in this town actually happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
If most data centers don\u2019t come to fruition, though, he questioned what will happen to the land between Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6 where developers already cut down large swaths of trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about all the properties that they ripped apart?\u201d he said. \u201cWhat are they going to do with them? Leave them like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Vehicles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-DATACENTERS-0325-02.jpg\")
Vehicles pass a clearing of trees along Business Route 6 in Archbald Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
With data center projects proposed to more than 2.4 square miles of his entire borough\u2019s land, or about 14% of Archbald, including near parks, homes and schools, Rapoch contends developers care about money \u2014 not the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting crushed, and we don\u2019t know which way to turn to fight this one, that one, the other one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Several of the proposed data center projects in Archbald fall into conditional use designations, giving council the power to approve or deny their applications. Rapoch stressed that he has to consider the applications neutrally. If a data centers meet all of the conditions that the borough established for the industry, Archbald would have to allow it, though Rapoch doesn\u2019t expect every proposal to meet them. Pennsylvania requires municipalities to allow for every lawful land use somewhere within their borders.<\/p>\n
If data centers do materialize in Archbald, Rapoch reiterated concerns about their lifespan and decommissioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can make museums out of them: \u2018This is what data centers did to ruin our population,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only a fraction of more than a dozen Lackawanna County data center campuses proposed in the last 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,2116,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-188502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}