A developer looking to build a massive natural gas-powered data center campus in Pittslyvania County, Virginia, is scaling back its plans and hopes to gain approval for a 300MW site.
Balico LLC had applied for rezoning permission for 47 parcels of land totaling 2,200 acres around Mill Creek Road in the county, on which it planned to build more than 70 data center buildings and a 3.5GW natural gas power plant.
However, following consultation with neighbors, the company has withdrawn the proposal and will come back with a smaller design later this month.
Irfan Ali, CEO of Balico, told DCD the revised site would initially host eight or nine data centers on a much smaller footprint, with the potential for expansion at a later date.
“Our first phase will be 300MW and we want to work with the community to show the benefits this development can deliver,” Ali said. “It will give residents the opportunity to see what we’re planning and how we’re going to minimize the impact of the data center on the surrounding area.”
Ali said his company plans to develop the site and lease the data centers to tenants, which will be able to fit them out to suit their needs.
It will be connected to the nearby Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile pipeline delivering natural gas produced in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in the Atlantic Ocean. “MVP will provide us with all the gas we need, and it’s right there on our site,” Ali said.
AltaGas earlier this month said data centers would likely lead to the MVP being expanded.
Though natural gas is less damaging to the environment than other fossil fuels, it is responsible for much higher emissions than renewable energy sources like solar or wind power. Ali said the campus will use Mitsubishi turbines which offer greater efficiency than others on the market, to keep its carbon footprint to a minimum.
Balico plans to submit its new application on November 19. The revisions to the scheme come following a Pittsylvania County Planning Commission meeting, held last Monday, which saw residents speak out against the original plan.
According to local news outlet WFXR, Lauren Sink Haygood, a resident in Pittsylvania County’s Bannister District, told the committee: “The fact that this proposed power plant and data centers will destroy our community is no surprise to anyone here. It would wreck our peaceful, farming agricultural lifestyle. I know the application has been withdrawn, but I also know that it is not over.”