The New Albany City Council has approved an Edged Energy plan to develop a data center in the Ohio city.

First reported by BizJournal, the data center is expected to span 210,000 sq ft (19,510 sqm) on a 15-acre parcel at 6385 New Albany Road East.

The application was made by Edged Columbus LLC, an Edged Energy unit. The project, expected to cost $250 million, has received a 15-year 100 percent real property tax abatement.

Construction is currently set to begin in January 2024, and to be completed by March 2025.

Edged Energy uses a cooling system from the company ThermalWorks, described as an "ultra-efficient cooling system that supports the dense AI-driven loads that are reshaping the IT industry without consuming water."

According to the data center developer and operator, this saves 380 million gallons of water.

The company has data centers either operating or in development in Madrid and Barcelona in Spain; Lisbon, Portugal, and across the US including Missouri, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Illinois.

The company is utilizing a proprietary waterless cooling technology. Edged's parent company Endeavor has created a new unit, called ThermalWorks, to offer its cooling technology to other operators.

The company said the system can enable liquid cooling and air cooling on the same circuit and offer PUEs of around 1.1 to 1.15. It says the cooling systems can support densities of up to 70kW for air cooling and 200kW for liquid cooling.

QTS gets tax abatement for New Albany data centers

The city council meeting also saw QTS get a 15-year 100 percent real property tax abatement for two additional data centers in Albany, on top of the four already approved on Beech Road.

QTS reportedly wants to build eight additional facilities, spanning 3.2 million sq ft (297,290 sqm) on 240 acres on Babbitt and Miller roads. The company will invest nearly $3 billion in those projects.

This would bring QTS' total investment in the area to $4.4bn.