Why Should Delaware Care?
The growth of data centers has become a hotly contested topic in Delaware and nationally, because the facilities, which power the technology of the future, require huge amounts of electricity. New regulations on the industry approved by New Castle County are the first of their kind in the state.
After months of acrimonious debate, the New Castle County Council agreed to compromise Tuesday and passed an ordinance that imposes new regulations onto the rapidly growing data center industry.
The sweeping legislation includes new rules that require data centers to maintain buffer zones around them, and to use energy-efficient backup generators, among other regulations.
But the new regulations will not apply to the most controversial data center proposal in the state – the Project Washington development proposed near Delaware City.
“It’s a good start,” said Councilman Dave Carter, who wrote the bill. “It was difficult to make some compromises, but I think we’ve got tremendous improvements in.”
After council members critiqued the original legislation last fall, Carter worked with county staff to change the bill to address those concerns, such as concessions on noise regulations. The final proposal ultimately passed with 12 councilmembers voting yes, and 1 absent.
Tensions ran high among audience members in the packed council chambers Tuesday evening, with jeers, laughs and applause throughout discussions by the council and during a public comment period.
But while past county council debates over the data center regulations got heated — one even featured a councilman flipping off another — this one stayed mostly cordial.
After some debate and conferring with the council’s lawyer, councilmembers Janet Kilpatrick and John Cartier both agreed to withdraw their last-minute amendments, allowing the compromise to pass.
Kilpatrick’s amendment would have exempted all existing buildings from following the regulations, while Cartier’s amendment would have made the regulations apply to data center proposals in the pipeline.
Carter first proposed the regulations last summer amid a backlash to a developer’s plan to build a massive, power-hungry data center on about 580 acres north of the Delaware City Refinery, called Project Washington.
Many residents and elected officials feared the facility would harm the local environment and exacerbate an energy crunch that was already impacting the region.
Project Washington would not have to follow these regulations, though. Part of the council’s compromise was to make the ordinance only apply to new projects, not ones already in the development pipeline.
Even so, members of Delaware’s building trades unions on Tuesday expressed fear that the regulations will cause the state to lose future data center projects, along with the tax revenue and jobs they would bring.
For months, those union members have accounted for the most vocal contingent in support of data center proposals locally.
The ordinance will now go to County Executive Marcus Henry, who will either veto it or sign it into law. David Culver, New Castle County’s General Manager of Land Use, said during the hearing that Henry supports the regulations.
What do the regulations say?
Carter’s amended ordinance included a few concessions on noise regulations, but also clearly outlined how data centers are allowed to use water to cool their supercomputers.
Carter removed specific requirements developers would have to meet in order to dampen persistent noise from data centers. Instead, it says developers would have to defer to existing code that says they “shall not generate noise levels that exceed the pre-development noise level.”
He did the same for the lighting regulations, deferring back to existing standards for industrial projects.
Additionally, the ordinance says data centers must use closed-loop cooling systems, which are designed to reuse as much water as possible. By mandating these systems, Carter said, data centers could reduce their water and energy use.
The regulations say data center projects must be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest residential dwelling, unless the developers submit a noise study to the county. They could then build them within 500 feet of a home.
Data center developers also must set aside funds to decommission the data center if they decide to no longer operate it. That means tearing down the buildings and restoring the land to its original condition.
Where do the data center projects stand?
The regulations approved Tuesday will not impact the handful of data center projects that were already in New Castle County’s development pipeline, including most notably Project Washington near Delaware City.
The first half of that massive project has been hamstrung by a ruling under the Coastal Zone Act though, which would prohibit the data center’s use of diesel generators for back-up power. The developer, Starwood Digital Ventures, has appealed that ruling, but it could take months or years to be fully adjudicated.
The second half of Project Washington would require the same approval under the Coastal Zone Act by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control as well as a rezoning by the county — a more onerous process than the first phase that requires the county council to approve it.
The same Coastal Zone Act ruling could be a hurdle for a project proposed near the St. George’s Bridge, but it would be unencumbered by the new county regulations. It is already zoned business park, which could accommodate the data centers.
Finally, a third site near Newark has perhaps the easiest path now that the regulations, and their effective start date, have been determined. That project would see the redevelopment of the White Clay Corporate Center into a three-building data center. It is already properly zoned, does not lie within the Coastal Zone and would not be affected by the new regulations.