Stevens talks data center, water, electric rates and more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

“Lincolnview school district, the county (Van Wert County) and the City of Van Wert are going to receive hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue back into our community.”

Those words were spoken by Van Wert Area Economic Corporation Executive Director Brent Stevens during a weekend radio program that aired on 99.7 FM WKSD and WERT 1220AM/104.3FM.

Stevens was talking about the sometimes controversial data center that will be built at the Mega Site, which is in the city of Van Wert and in the Lincolnview Local Schools district.

“For a community of this size, that’s going to be significant and it’s going to allow us to do a lot of things what we would never ever have an opportunity (to do),” Stevens said during the Commissioners Corner/Mayor’s Conference program, which airs at 8:25 a.m. each Sunday on WKSD/WERT.

During the program, Stevens addressed fears about water usage, electric rates and more.

A number of residents have expressed concerns about the data center and water usage, especially with drought conditions already in place locally. He also added the “end user” – the company that will build the data center in Van Wert has the latest technology available, via a closed loop system.

“They basically charge up this big loop with water and a little bit of glycol to make sure it doesn’t freeze and it’s like geothermal where it’s running underground, it’s going through a heat exchanger and it disapates the heat and goes back,” he explained. “The water and the chargents inside this closed loop can last for decades. We’re not going to be taking any water out of the aquifer, no water out of the reservoir – it’s going to be this closed loop system (for cooling).”

“The closed loop system system itself, just to give you a number saves 45 million gallons of water per year,” he added.

Stevens also noted that Danfoss, located in Van Wert, has a patent that’s used in closed loop systems for data centers and it’s going to be used on the local data center. He added that within the last 12 months, Danfoss has hired 50 additional workers just in their cooling division to be able to supply the parts, and he said they have plans for further expansion and the hiring of more employees.

Another common fear among residents is the impact of electric rates, once the data center is in operation.

“I can understand that – electric bills have gone up so people are worried about that, but just because you put a data center in Van Wert, that doesn’t mean that your electric bills are going to go up because of that data center,” Stevens said. “In Indiana, a data center went in and electric rates went down for the community because of all of the payments that they were having to make for the infrastructure upgrades.”

Stevens also noted that last year, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio passed a rule to ensure data centers paid for up to 85 percent of the intrastructure going into the building.

While early estimates have the data center employing 250 employees, Stevens acknowledged that won’t happen on the first day it’s up and running because it will be built in phases, but he said studies show more than three ancillary jobs – such as people hired at Danfoss – come with every employee hired at a data center.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 construction workers will build the facility, which according to Stevens, will generate a tremendous amount of income for the city, via the city’s income tax.

During the program, Stevens also addressed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and noted the data center will have no pollutants rolling out of it.

The name of the end user is expected to be revealed later this month or in early April, and Stevens is expected to answer more questions and concerns in the coming weeks. In addition, a community event regarding the data center is expected to be held at Vantage Career Center in April. The date has yet to be scheduled, but representatives from the data center, along with utilities representatives and Danfoss will be there, along with Stevens, Van Wert Mayor Ken Markward, and the Van Wert County Commissioners.

“People will be able to come, see who they are and understand the project and ask all the questions that they want to ask,” Stevens said.

Sunday’s entire radio program can be heard here: