Breaking: UD Pulls the Plug on the Data Center/Power Plant
I just got an email on this and there isn’t much available yet. From WDEL:
UD announced it has terminated its lease with The Data Centers (TDC), putting a halt to TDC’s plans to develop a data center on the site of the former Chrysler plant.
A report issued Thursday, UD faculty and administrative leaders concluded that the proposed facility, which included a 279-megawatt power plant is not consistent with their first class science and technology campus.
Despite obvious economic advantages, UD’s decision was unanimous, citing facility plans and greenhouse gases and other pollutants that would result from the TDC.
The NJ doesn’t have anything to add at this point.
The University’s full report is here.
I haven’t looked at this in any detail, but if you do, tell us what you see here. But I’m surprised that they put a stop to this thing, but delighted that they got that this center wasn’t going to add to the cutting edge science and technology efforts that they were looking for.
ADDING: This looks like the University’s press release on their decision. Key piece (to me):
A data center would be advantageous to the STAR Campus, with the potential to provide research and internship opportunities, enhance the property infrastructure so as to attract other tenants; provide construction and permanent jobs and provide tax revenue for local schools and community.
Contemporary high quality data centers use the existing grid or deploy a combination of the existing grid and renewable energy generation to meet their power needs. This approach appears to be advantageous on many grounds: reliability, economic and environmental.
Relative to other fossil-fuel energy sources, the combined heat and power (CHP) facility TDC proposed is an efficient and viable transitional energy generation technology. However, its efficiency is predicated on being appropriately sized such that the recovered heat can be used or sold throughout the year as useful energy. Specifically with TDC’s plan, it was not clear that this would be the case, particularly in the non-summer months.
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60k person stadium, here we come. Gee golly, i hope Delaware becomes a big Footballs school like Temple.
Ben, Just think of all the T-shirt sales jobs that will be created.
A win for the Neo-Luddites!
Short version: They found that the power plant is not secondary to the data center, and that constant changes to the proposal undermined their confidence in the developer.
Karl: Read the report and get back to us.
Project proponents would do well to reexamine their tactics. Intimidating opponents, using the legislature to threaten funding cuts to the University, and laughably-misleading commercials.
Not only didn’t those tactics help, I think they were counterproductive.
Not only didn’t those tactics help, I think they were counterproductive.
Actually, those tactics produced exactly the outcome many of us were looking for. 🙂
Gene Kern and his Data Centers team were trying to sell a plan that they could not explain. No doubt there will be some sort of data center on the STAR campus, more likely sooner than later, but you can bet it will be operated by people who have experience building and running one. UD has made clear it won’t be suckered by sloppy science and pie-in-the-sky promises, even if it means shooting down the fondest desires of our governor and his joined-at-the-hip DEDO director.
“even if it means shooting down the fondest desires of our governor and his joined-at-the-hip DEDO director.”
If you’re talking fondest desires, you should include the construction trades. It means more to them than it does to Markell or Levin.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
The Data Center supporters, especially the unions, badly overplayed their hand.
Unless another economically comparable project comes forward quickly, I expect there will be blood on the floor – just not sure who’s blood.
One economically-comparable project would have been to fund our highway infrastructure at at least the same levels as in previous years.
$50 million more added to the economy just to maintain previous levels.
Everybody punted. Better to have roads and bridges fall apart and to saddle people with automotive repairs they otherwise wouldn’t have needed so that our Honorables wouldn’t have to raise the gas tax in an Election Year. Costly and cowardly.
BTW, why the bleep didn’t the unions go all out for THAT?
“BTW, why the bleep didn’t the unions go all out for THAT?”
Wrong unions.
Just added a link to the UD’s press release on their decision above.
I have a lot of the media links here
http://delawareway.blogspot.com/2014/07/udtdc-update-we-won-thank-you-ud-its.html
plus, there’s going to be a gathering at the Deer Park from 6 -9 PM second floor after standing in front of Old College with big THANK YOU UD signs from 4- 6 .
stop on by!
Although my heart is set on an Arbys, I’m loving some of the suggested option in the current poll.