Tony Spano, project manager for Plum Creek Development Partners, Ltd., appeared before Kyle’s Planning and Zoning Commission this evening to outline his plans for creating an area of Northwest Kyle that could be set aside as a "data center park." The area he has in mind is on the east side of Highway 1626 and north of Kohlers Crossing. The baseball/softball fields would be just north of the proposed area. (It's designated as Area 10 on this map.)
What Spano envisions for this area is at least one data center to be built on the site and, he hopes, "secondary and tertiary businesses" that would follow in the wake of the centers. It’s these businesses that would provide new jobs to the area because the centers themselves are simply nothing more than large warehouses that house computer systems and associated components that basically run by themselves.
The issue with data centers is that they use a lot — and I mean a whole lot — of electricity and much if not all of this electricity comes from their in-house diesel generators. This is a conservative estimate, but three moderately sized data centers could use as much electricity as the rest of Kyle combined. Thus, if not monitored closely, these data centers could produce significant pollution in the form of diesel exhaust.
The EPA, however, has stepped in to address the problem. Beginning this year, the agency has required that all diesel engines for off-road use meet strict emissions standards and we’re talking about nearly zero levels of emissions. So there’s that. On the other hand, Gov. Rick Perry along with Attorney General and Gov.-elect Gregg Abbott have made it their mission to sue the federal government every time the EPA tries to put restrictions on businesses when it comes to their emissions. So there’s that, too.
The subject of "pollution" didn’t even come up at tonight’s P&Z meeting. All the commissioners could see is "We could have high tech data centers right here in Kyle like they have in Austin and San Antonio." And if Spano has his way, that’s exactly what Kyle will have. When asked by commissioner Lori Huey whether Spano had anyone interested in locating such a facility in his proposed park, he sort of hemmed and hawed, smiled sheepishly and replied "At this time, I’d rather not say." I know how I interpret that.
Iit’s going to be a while before any of this comes to fruition anyway, so I’m hoping between now and then someone on the commission and/or someone on the City Council will demand the EPA’s Tier 4 regulations be followed to the letter when it comes to actually locating one or more of these centers here. P&Z is already discussing surrendering the city’s landscaping integrity; let’s make sure we don’t give away our air quality as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment