SPRINGFIELD – A proposed half-a-billion dollar data center in Sangamon County could be voted on as early as April 7 after being a vote was tabled during the March 23 county board meeting.
The data center has been a hot button issue in Sangamon County since it was first proposed by Dallas-based company CyrusOne last year.
Here’s a refresher of the proposed project ahead of the potential vote.
What is the estimated cost of the project?
$500 million.
Where would it be located?
The 280-acre site would be located at the intersection of Clark and Thayer in Talkington Township, Illinois near the Sugar Creek River. Craig Hall represents the 7th Ward for the county in which the data center would fall in.
How large would the site be?
The entire site is 280 acres, with four main buildings. Each building will encompass roughly 450,000 square feet for a total of 1.8 million square feet.
How many generators will it have?
The proposed data center would be equipped with tier four 421 diesel backup generators to power 1.5 million square feet of computer servers. Backup generators run only 10–15 hours per year for maintenance and testing purposes, and in rare cases of utility outages, according to CyrusOne.
Where will it pull water from and how much?
The site will have four detention ponds, a septic field connecting to the Apple Creek Cooperative, about 15 houses worth per day according to CyrusOne. All system fluids are managed by licensed contractors in accordance with EPA regulations, and the site will use a code-compliant septic system for non-cooling water discharge, designed to protect soil and groundwater quality.
Who is the grid provider?
The data center will rely on the existing Ameren Illinois and Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative electric grid. President of RECC Shawn Milton came out to support the data center on March 23, when the county board voted to table the last key conditional zoning permit to move the center forward. Milton said the existing transmission electrical infrastructure has allowed renewable infrastructure invited that Sangamon County is ready for high tech industrial growth.
How many jobs would it create?
500 temporary construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs at max capacity once all four data center warehouses would be built.
What is a data center?
A data center is a physical facility that stores and processes the data behind everything digital. The largescale development sites look like warehouses from the outside, and inside house thousands of computer server halls and racks to store the data.
The facility will use a closed-loop cooling system, a self-contained system that continuously circulates water within the building to remove heat without mixing with the external environment. After the water is filled to the top the first time, there are no daily water top-ups at the facilities which utilize the system.
Who is behind the project?
CyrusOne, the Dallas-based company and one of the world’s largest data center owners and operators has over 60 data centers globally across the United States, Japan and Europe, with two in the Chicagoland area, including in Aurora.
Who is for the data center?
Vocal supporters of the data center include the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, which has begun funding paid advertising campaigns to support the data center under sangamonjobsnow.com. New video advertisements and text messages are cropping up online promoting the center for the years of construction jobs for up to 500 laborers and has gained the support of over 15 local labor unions.
Who is against it?
Opposition points instead toward the short-term gain of jobs and the long-term environmental impacts. Dozens of locals also spoke at the March 23 meeting toward the inconsistency of the companies past support of people living near their sites, and references the city of Aurora, who has sued CyrusOne for an electrical malfunction last April.
When is the next vote?
While nothing is set in stone, the earliest the vote on the data center could be is April 7.
Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@usatodayco.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Everything to know about proposed $500M data center in Sangamon County
Reporting by Claire Grant, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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