{"id":291879,"date":"2026-09-22T23:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/291879\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T23:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:42:08","slug":"data-center-debate-moving-to-bethlehem-officials-to-review-proposed-regulations-at-public-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/291879\/","title":{"rendered":"Data center debate moving to Bethlehem: Officials to review proposed regulations at public hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 Data center proposals have filled municipal rooms throughout the Lehigh Valley<\/a> with concerned residents in recent months. The debate could soon take center stage in Bethlehem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boyle Construction is looking to build a 60-foot-tall data center with two floors, each covering more than 65,000 square feet, at 2184 Industrial Dr. near the interchange at Routes 22 and 378.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those plans \u2013 which include demolishing the former Crowder Service Center \u2013 are in front of Bethlehem officials, who also are considering an ordinance to regulate data centers within city boundaries. <\/p>\n

A public hearing on the proposed ordinance is slated just before Bethlehem City Council\u2019s Oct. 6 meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that legislation won\u2019t apply to the proposed data center, as plans were submitted before it was introduced. <\/p>\n

Boyle is working on the project with Paxos and Tensor IQ, which touts itself as an advisor for developers and operators of data centers, including AI-ready facilities. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Plans call for the data center to use a closed-loop cooling system. <\/p>\n

The companies behind the project are proposing a new electrical substation that would provide 80% of the facility\u2019s electricity, which is projected at 120 megawatts. The data center would get the rest of its energy from natural gas generation, according to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission\u2019s review of the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than $70 million of electrical and utility infrastructure upgrades could be needed to serve the facility, according to the LVPC\u2019s report, which says those costs would be privately funded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GRID guidelines<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s partners said in a news release that they will work to plan the data center to meet guidelines recently established by Gov. Josh Shapiro.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He signed an executive order last month imposing tougher requirements on data center development<\/a>, including provisions that address energy affordability, as well as environmental and water impacts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The order, known as the Governor\u2019s Responsible Infrastructure Development requirements, are meant to block \u201cspeculative, irresponsible data center projects from moving forward\u201d and give municipalities more control over their development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection won\u2019t issue permits for GRID-compliant data centers until developers have secured all local approvals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But DEP officials won\u2019t even look at non-compliant proposals until those approvals are in hand, according to the standards, which apply to data center projects with peak demands over 25 megawatts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least a few other proposals in the Lehigh Valley would be governed by Shapiro\u2019s GRID standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A proposed quarter-million-square-foot data center on Emaus Avenue<\/a> in South Allentown has a projected peak demand of 75 megawatts, while a similar facility in the shadow of Coca-Cola Park<\/a> \u2013 soon to be Jefferson Park \u2013 could require up to 100 megawatts of power, according to the LVPC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A hyperscale data center<\/a> covering more than 1.5 million square feet of land across the street from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township could have a peak electricity demand of more than 700 megawatts, according to documents filed by the developer, Edged US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The total daily demand for those three facilities, plus the proposed data center in Bethlehem, would be more than a gigawatt. The current peak demand for PPL Electric Utilities sits at about 7.8 gigawatts per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Electricity demands for several other data centers proposed in the region have not been disclosed. <\/p>\n

*Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated Bethlehem officials would consider the proposed data center at an Oct. 6 public hearing. That public hearing is to review an ordinance to regulate data centers, not the proposal itself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 Data center proposals have filled municipal rooms throughout the Lehigh Valley with concerned residents in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-291879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291879","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=291879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}