From WHYY: New Castle County residents fight back against proposed data center

Dozens of New Castle County residents pushed back against a planned data center for Delaware City during a tense town hall Thursday night.

One by one, they lined up inside a fire hall for a chance to chastise representatives of the private investor firm that plans to construct a data center that would be 6 million square feet in size.

Starwood Digital Ventures is proposing to build a 1.2-gigawatt data center in Delaware City, which sits along the Delaware River. The investor-developer said the project, which is in the early proposal stage, would generate thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue for the state.

But during the heated three-hour town hall, residents grilled representatives with questions about potential energy and water use, environmental impacts and whether the jobs would be given to local residents. When investors couldn’t answer some questions, frustration grew among a crowd that largely came in with apprehensions.

The plan in Delaware City, which must be approved by New Castle County Council and would require land to be rezoned, includes an 11-building facility that would be 6 million square feet large.

During the town hall, the firm’s CEO Anthony Balestrieri said Delaware City is an attractive location because of its proximity to high voltage power lines and the Red Lion substation.

The project would create more than 500 permanent jobs over time, as well as thousands of construction jobs, and could generate $26 million in tax revenue for the state, Balestrieri said.

'“Data centers are the invisible backbone that make our interconnected digital lives possible,” Balestrieri said. “They’re a mission-critical infrastructure for the U.S. economy, enabling services, connectivity, innovation, across business and industry, including banks, governments, education facilities, health care and first responders. In short, they play a vital role in ensuring access to the internet cheaply and fairly for everyone.”

But residents who attended the town hall expressed concerns about energy use and increased electricity bills.