Construction is set to begin on a giant data center that will house and operate more than 438,000 square feet of information and energy storage facilities on a 56-acre property in northeast Gilroy.
The facility, owned and operated by Amazon Data Services, will be located at the southeast end of Arroyo Circle. It will be built in phases, with the first phase consisting of a 218,000-square-foot single story data center that requires a 49 MW connection to PG&E, says a project description on the City of Gilroy’s website.
The first phase will be supported by 25 emergency generators, each with a 2.5 MW capacity to power the data center servers in the event of an emergency. Plans also include a 600-kilowatt generator to power other property functions such as lighting, also in case of an outage.
Phase Two of the project will include another single-story data center building, also about 218,000 square feet.
Future plans also include offsite power transmission upgrades and a potential Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) of up to 50 megawatts, says the city’s website. Plans also include a 2,500–square-foot security building.
The vacant property where the data center will be built is bordered by the Gilroy Premium Outlets, Kaiser Permanente’s South County offices and U.S. 101.
The project was approved on July 3 by Gilroy Community Development Director Sharon Goei, following an extensive environmental impact study of Amazon’s plans.
“The project meets criteria set forth by the city’s Industrial Design Guidelines, based on the provision of modern industrial aesthetic one story design, utilizing landscaping and site improvements that is compatible with surrounding industrial, medical offices and commercial buildings,” says a July 3 letter to Amazon Data Services from Goei.
Amazon and other tech companies have built many new data centers in Silicon Valley and the surrounding region in recent years to keep up with increasing demand for cloud storage related services. The centers, which house giant computer servers that run 24 hours a day, require significant volumes of electrical power capacity, and the one coming to Gilroy is no exception.
In response to general questions about data center power usage, officials with Silicon Valley Clean Energy noted that 10 MW of energy is equivalent to the power needed for 10,000 homes. The Amazon data center will include a 49 MW connection, with the power hungry server buildings to be phased in.
Pamela Leonard, Deputy Director of Marketing & Communications for SVCE, said SVCE currently serves numerous data centers in the region. None have created any issues with energy consumption.
“The growth of data centers is signaling a big shift, and Silicon Valley Clean Energy is prepared to work with companies in our service area to provide clean energy and community benefits,” Leonard said. “When considering potential future demand from data centers, planning is a crucial step to accommodate all necessary requirements for interconnection. With sufficient lead time and planning, capacity to meet this load can be built.”
A representative for Amazon Web Services did not respond to an email requesting more details about the Gilroy data center project.
The city’s project description does not include a detailed construction timeline, and does not specify if or when the data center would be operating at its full electrical capacity.
Hmmmmm. Thousands of millions of watts need to be converted essentially Carbon fuels. So how close to Gi will the fire based sources be? The only really ‘clean’ soarce is Atomic.
Anyone asking why this center is placed within 100 yards of a large municipal Gilroy water well? One with it’s own large back up generator? Putting aside the white noise factor (they’ll turn on the generators when and where they wish), the wasteful power factor, the burden on the already stressed grid etc, These things use tons of water for cooling, condensation and evaporation, all run by even more cans producing even more noise and energy use. Only a portion of the water is recycled. The rest is new water, and used for washing of all the condensation apparatus. So the next time the city tells you to not water your lawns and let them turn brown, or your kid’s baseball field is brown, or you are told “if it’s yellow let it mellow” in your toilet- ignore it. It’s because they need to stream the next movie on the internet for some guy in Atherton. So when they triple your water rates and threaten you for leaky pipes or sprinklers- while you sit in the dark listening to their generators sound like an airport- remember, someone got rich, but not you. You can suck it up amigo.
I have looked at information the city provided on their website and I didn’t see anything regarding how much water they anticipate using for the data center.
I live a bit North East of town in a rural area and have a domestic water well and am concerned about the massive amount of water usage and the possibility of lowering the water table and leaving me along with other neighbors and farmers being left high and dry or having a major expense of having to deepen our wells. A quick google search shows many horror stories of water issues for well owners when a data center is put in.
There actually was a CEQA mandated water study done for this project which is available for download on the City of Gilroy project website. Problem is, once you read through all the double speak, scientific gobbledy goo and citations (which I did- 300+ pages worth), it becomes apparent that the estimates of water use are conservative, don’t reflect water sourced at peak demand times based on reliable data (high temps) and rely on future infrastructure projects yet to happen or be paid for or approved. These include additional water source development (wells) or water recycling projects. They also admit that Gilroy is not really “in charge” of the water resources identified for the project, but buys them from the SCC Water District, who by it’s own previous admissions is constantly in jeopardy of water basin depletion and in need of varied recharge efforts of minimal effectiveness. Basically, they did an end run around the amount of water projected to be used by saying there “might” be enough water if all this infrastructure stuff happens, we don’t have a long drought, and well, it rains hard. Like loaning somebody money who might inherit some some day to pay you back. Bottom line is, these projects are water wasteful big time, and we don’t have enough. But hey- enjoy all those “grants” they just announced. Hope you don’t get thirsty.
I’d be very interested in a follow-up article about this project’s projected water use, and whether water use would be reduced during droughts. Who approved this, and why are we learning about it after approval?
Tony, Yes I bailed out when the gobbledy goo started getting so thick I had a headache. There is a constant drone in Gilroy and Santa Clara County in general about saving water, yet they approve more housing and stack and pack housing to boot. if you and I can find issues and news reports of similar problems with data centers and water usage issues I think the city didn’t do the due diligence required for this project, or maybe they just saw a cash cow money wise?
This doesn’t look good for our water table for current city folks, farmers, and us people who have a domestic well near this project.