GIBRALTAR, Mich. (WXYZ) — A California-based technology company is hoping to build an inference data center at a former steel plant in the city of Gibraltar, but the project is facing a hurdle after the city council approved a 12-month moratorium on data centers.
Raeden submitted a site plan to develop the former McLouth Steel site on Jefferson Avenue, south of Vreeland Road, using existing buildings on the property.
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The company held an informational meeting at a Gibraltar community center Wednesday, drawing large crowds of residents and neighbors who voiced concerns about the proposal.
Before the meeting, a protest was held outside.
Rebecca Covel-German, whose children attend Gibraltar schools, said she has serious questions about the project's potential impact on the surrounding environment.
"What is it going to do to Lake Erie, what is it going to do the wildlife," Covel-German said.
Jessica Schering of Indivisible: Downriver United 734 raised concerns about the facility's resource demands.
"The amount of power that they want to use for these plants, the amount of water, it means no different that it's smaller," Schering said.
According to Raeden, the facility would use around 200 to 500 gallons of water per day for a closed-loop cooling system. The project would also require 100 megawatts of energy.
Jason Green, co-founder and COO of Raeden, shared how the data center would be used.
"These are targeted for customers of ours that need proximity to frankly large metropolitan and geographical areas where there's a large population and then they need to go very fast," Green said.
Green also addressed concerns about the facility's energy footprint, arguing that data centers can actually benefit utility customers.
"Being a utility is hard; you have unpredictable use. A data center is very predictable use. The more predictability the utility gets, the lower the costs are for everybody else," Green said.
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Gibraltar City Councilman Cody Dill said the moratorium is about gathering more details about data centers.
"I can only speak for myself, but we need to find out more," Dill said. "I think by in large, it's to find out information, economics," Dill said.
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The moratorium includes provisions that allow it to be extended or shortened. Green said he views the pause as an opportunity rather than a setback.
"At the end of the day, it wasn't the death of anything. It was that we want to find out more and if we can't be transparent, then you probably shouldn't want us in this town either," Green said.
