Why Should Delaware Care?
Local governments across Delaware have passed regulations on data centers, citing fears about their massive energy use and effects on the environment. But Dover’s data center moratorium is the first in the state, potentially marking a shift in how far municipalities will go to address these concerns.
The Dover City Council on Monday unanimously approved a 18-month moratorium on the construction of data centers in Delaware’s capital city.
The moratorium is the first of its kind in Delaware, and follows more than a year of discussions and debate across the state over how much the fast-growing industry could impact power bills and the local environment.
Dover’s new ordinance now pauses the city’s official review of proposals for large energy-use facilities, including data centers that use more than 30 megawatts of electricity. That amount of electricity is roughly equivalent to the energy use of 24,000 homes.
During the 18-month pause, city officials will research the effects data centers could have on the city; whether they should be allowed to be built; and how to regulate them if they are built.
“This is not a ‘no’ to data centers. This is, we need to figure it out before we can say, ‘yes,’” Councilwoman Donyale Hall, who introduced the ordinance, said in an interview.
Hall said the council will now decide the most cost-effective way to study the issue.
The moratorium passed with little discussion on Monday evening, except from Councilman Brian Lewis, who called for a ban on construction of the facilities in the city, despite potential economic benefits they could bring.
“To me, the environment, people’s health and our infrastructure are more important than jobs in the city,” he said.
Dover officials have already been approached about potential plans for more than one data center project in the city, Hall said. She said she did not have information about the developers. And they have not yet submitted a formal application to the city, so the potential projects will not move forward at least until the moratorium is over.
While Dover is the first city in Delaware to pass a data center moratorium, it is not alone. Almost every state in the country has at least one municipality that has either banned data centers or imposed a moratorium, according to the artificial intelligence research site, Programs. Nearly all neighboring Eastern Shore counties in Maryland have passed moratoriums of at least a year.
A boom in the construction of data centers to power the artificial intelligence industry has sparked a nationwide backlash to the facilities. Opponents say they are noisy, use too much water and cause power bills to surge. Proponents say they bring much-needed jobs and tax revenue.
New Castle and Kent counties also recently approved rules limiting where a data center could be built in their unincorporated areas. Those regulations include buffer requirements, noise limits and bans on cooling systems that consume large amounts of water.
When debating the regulations last summer, Kent County officials also expressed a willingness to consider an outright county-wide ban on the fast-growing industry.
Adding to the county regulations are new rules state lawmakers passed in June through a slate of bills. Among those is one that would require developers to supply all of the power a data center facility would use for the first 10 years of its operations.
