{"id":64348,"date":"2025-08-07T05:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/64348\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T05:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:23:09","slug":"former-site-of-springdale-power-plant-could-become-high-tech-ai-data-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/64348\/","title":{"rendered":"Former site of Springdale power plant could become high-tech AI data center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former site of the Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale<\/a> could become the home of Allegheny County’s first high-tech hyperscale artificial intelligence data center, allowing it to support companies like Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Community members and leaders gathered at the borough building in Springdale on Wednesday night to hear developers share preliminary details about the project and answer questions.<\/p>\n

The project would likely create 80 to 100 permanent jobs, developer Brian Regli said on Wednesday. It would likely use 180 megawatts of energy, the equivalent of 20% of what the old Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station produced, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One neighbor shared that an economic analysis should be conducted for ratepayers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I wonder how their electricity bills are gonna change, how their water bills are gonna change, how their internet bills are gonna change with all this additional demand,” one man shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Power is a significant issue,” Regli said. “I don’t want to come to this table and deny that.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s a problem that can be solved if everyone works together, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“What we’re presenting to you today is an opportunity to bring some of the most advanced technology, some of the largest investments in this particular zone, into this community of Springdale Borough,” Regli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After an initial draw of water from a municipal water source, not the river, the data center would reuse water for cooling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials have not decided on where they would get the power for the center, but the variety of options in western Pennsylvania is a reason why locating a data center here is attractive, the developer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neighbors also raised concerns about noise and light pollution. Noise would be kept within local set standards, a member of the developer’s team said. Much of the data center would not be seen from the street because of existing trees, which would remain, the developer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked about the potential for negative health impacts, Regli said he knew of none.<\/p>\n

While the 80 to 100 jobs created are not as many as other uses, there would be fewer impacts to the community because it is a data center, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You’re not talking about something that necessarily needs an advanced degree. You’re talking about somebody who has strong mechanical skills, who knows how to build things,” Regli said. “And frankly, there are a lot of people in western Pennsylvania that know how to build things.”<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former site of the Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale could become the home of Allegheny County’s first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,41515,181,507,74],"class_list":["post-64348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-allegheny-county","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}