Briar Creek, Columbia County, PA -
Speakers at a town hall meeting Thursday promised Talen Energy's planned Cumulus Data Center would bring tax money, jobs, and better broadband service, with very few headaches for residents.
Julie LaBella, Talen's senior director of Regulatory and External Affairs, said the project would be powered by the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station. It would use excess electricity from the nuclear plant without reducing needed power to customers.
Because the project means storing digital data, she said, it will provide many benefits without straining area services.
Six other speakers also extolled the benefits of the plant. They detailed how two brand-new buildings, often described as “warehouses,” would process digital information without the traffic and the noise of a traditional warehouse.
Light attendance
The one thing missing from the evening, Salem Township Supervisor Frede Fransen lamented, was concerned residents. Fewer than 10 people attended.
Fransen was a bit upset more people didn't show up to ask questions.
Paul Hess, a township's planning commission member, expected residents to fill West Side Ballroom venue.
Instead, more than 100 chairs set up for the anticipated crowd sat empty.
Following the speakers' presentations, Kelly O'Brien, executive director of meeting host Berwick Industrial Development Association, asked for audience questions. There was none.
But because the event was recorded and the speakers promised to answer any future questions from residents, O'Brien considered the session useful in the long-term.
Economic boost
LaBella emphasized the economic boost the project would provide to the local economy.
She stated the project would bring between $1 million and $3 million in property tax money to Salem Township, Luzerne County, and the Berwick Area School District.
The digital campus will bring about 1,000 jobs to the area during construction, then employ 75-100 people between the two warehouses, she calculated.
She expects many of those jobs will go to local residents.
The project will also provide expanded sewer and water services, not just to the site, but to surrounding homes, she said. And broadband Internet services will also be increased.
She stressed this would be done with no change in operation to the nuclear power plant.
“We've had and will continue to have a strong safety record,” she insisted.
LaBella noted the cyber warehouses would have their own security. They would not tax local emergency services as a traditional warehouse might.
Both the data center and the Bitcoin mining facilities will be leased by Talen.
Talen does not yet know who will lease the data center. But LaBella said it would be a company such as Google, Facebook or Amazon.
The Bitcoin mining facility will be a joint venture between Talen and TeraWulf, named Nautilus Cryptomine.
Career training
Dr. Karl Kapp, a professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University, explained a data center can store, access, transfer and analyze electronic data.
Having one here means the area would keep up with a technology that is sprouting up around the world, he said.
Such sites can be run with a small, efficient workforce, he added.
The concept of storing digital data can be hard to understand, he acknowledged. He likened it to data stored when transferring money or using a store loyalty card.
Kapp said the construction of the project so close to the university would mean students could do different kinds of internships there.
Skills they would gain could help them get jobs after graduation, he added.
‘All the right boxes'
John Augustine III is the president of Penn's Northeast, a regional economic development agency. He said the project was an “easy yes.”
“It checks all the right boxes,” he remarked.
Augustine pointed out the project would allow the Susquehanna plant to use tremendous amounts of energy not currently being used.
“It will be a great return on their investment,” he said, referring to Talen.
He said the project would have both direct and indirect benefits to the community, including a broadband service on par with New York City.
“People ask about the Cloud and who knows where it is,” he said. “Now we know it's right here.”
Contact Geri Gibbons at 570-387-1234 ext. 1312 or at geri.gibbons@pressenterprise.net.
