Cirrus Delaware LLC, the company behind a planned $350 million data center in Middletown, Delaware, has put its application for an air permit on hold, amidst public concerns that the facility’s associated natural gas power plant would jeopardize the town’s air quality.
The proposed data center would be a 228,000 sq ft (21,000 sq m), 40MW facility and would be erected in an industrial area, adjacent to Amazon and Home Depot warehouses. The 62.5MW power plant would be built in the same complex, and would comprise ten gas fired generators, five of which would generate 10MW, and the remaining supplying 2.5MW each.
A three-ring Cirrus
As reported by the Middletown Transcript, the local mayor stated that the data center would still go ahead in due course, and that developers were waiting on the air permit to move forward.
The company is still looking for tenants for the planned facility, though according to Delaware Online, Cirrus and Middletown mayor Kenneth Branner Jr. will meet with three interested parties this month to discuss potential agreements.
The project was put to the local community in 2015 by a group of investors led by Milford developer Dennis Silicato, but was soon contested by residents living nearest to the chosen site, not far from the center of the town, and a campaign against the facility grew in momentum.
Residents were concerned the plant’s emissions would be a health hazard which would devaluate local real estate. Of the 18,710 Middletown residents, 513 signed a petition to challenge the plans, but they were ultimately accepted by the council.
It is worth nothing that the plant would not be the data center’s main power source, but a redundancy, to be used only when the main power source isn’t available.
Cirrus Delaware and the DNREC both conducted air quality tests as part of the federal government’s approval process, and found that despite being close to the top ceiling of the legally acceptable particulate pollution levels (95 percent of the federal allowable daily levels at peak times, and 94 percent of the allowable annual levels), they remained within the limits of the Environmental Protection Agency standards, even at peak requirement.
However, exact readings of microscopic particulate emissions are difficult to attain, meaning actual levels could differ from the initial tests conducted.
The decision now falls between the hands of state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), who will have to decide whether the power generator meets the standards required by the federal Clean Air Act, and, once again, will consult the public in its decision making process.
Last year, Protesters attended a workshop held by the DNREC to voice their concerns once more.
Despite the pending air quality control audit, the site was offered a public grant worth $7.5m by the The Delaware Economic Development Office’s Infrastructure Investment Committee, who had given it its initial go ahead.
$6.5m would be spent on an electrical power line and substation upgrades and the remaining million would go towards laying new fiber optic cables around the planned facility.
Receiving the money was conditional on the outcome of the air quality control approval, and the company’s ability to provide information about its backers and who would eventually operate the facility, as residents have cited concerns as to why there was such a veil of secrecy regarding investors and the sources of financing for the project.
It is uncertain how long the permit will be put on hold for, but it is likely this will become clear if the reasons for the request are ever made public.