By Jim Ross
For HDMedia
Developers of the proposed data center along W.Va. 62 north of Point Pleasant, Mason County, have submitted their application for a construction permit to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
The application was submitted April 20 by Monarch Cloud Campus LLC, which is owned by international data center developer Nscale. Now the DEP reviews it. While that process is going on, the project’s opponents are working on their next steps.
Project details
Data centers are measured in part by the amount of electricity they use. According to the DEP filing, this first phase of the Monarch Compute Campus will be a 2.16-gigawatt natural gas-fired off-grid facility. It will rely on 864 reciprocating internal combustion engines and associated equipment. Another 120 engines — six burning natural gas and the others using diesel fuel — will be needed for other uses, such as emergency power generation, fire water pumping and heating fuel gas.
The data center itself consists of three H-shaped buildings. Each building will have four power nodes, and each node will house 72 generators. Each node will power one wing of a building. Each generator will produce 3,513 horsepower, which is larger than engines used on the largest towboats on this part of the Ohio River. Each generator will provide 2.5 megawatts of electricity.
One data center building will be on the site of the runway of the former Mason County Airport.
Nscale officials have said the Monarch campus will have systems in place to shield nearby residences from noise, such as earthen berms and trees on the grounds and other systems inside the buildings themselves.
‘Not a done deal’
The proposed data center has drawn opposition from people who live near it. Opponents have been busy on social media, in particular people who live in the subdivision next to the data center site who complain about dust and other problems from site preparation work that is underway.
Morgan King, climate and energy program manager for the West Virginia Citizen Action Group, said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon that she is still reviewing the lengthy application document, but she did have observations.
“We have grave concerns on the impacts of the natural gas plant and the generators,” as the data center will be a major source of air pollutants, King said.
King said the data center will have significant impact on public health. Also, it could set back the corporate climate goals of its major corporate backers, including Microsoft, she said.
The DEP must decide whether the application is complete, King said. If it is deemed incomplete, it will be returned for more information, she said. If it is determined to be complete, the DEP must decide within 90 days whether to issue a draft permit, she said. If the draft permit is issued, there will be a 30-period for public comment, she said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will also be involved in the permitting process, King said.
“There’s a lot of pieces of this project, and it’s certainly not a done deal,” she said.
If there is enough pushback from the community, there could be changes “in a positive way” on the data center’s development, she said.
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