NORTHVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) — Neighbors in Northville came face to face with state leaders Friday night to discuss the surge of data center proposals in Michigan.
From Southfield to Lyon Township, data center proposals are popping up all across Southeast Michigan. The goal of the town hall meeting, held at Northville High School, was to give the community a voice before any ground is broken on the massive facilities.
Watch Jolie Sherman's video report below:
The meeting was a chance for residents from all over metro Detroit to learn more about these hyper-scale centers, the resources they require and the impact they might have on consumers.
"I’m a consulting engineer and I have many ideas on how data centers don’t have to use as much electricity, as much gas or as much water as a lot of them are doing," Jim Newman said.
Newman was one of dozens of people to participate in the town hall hosted by Sen. Rosemary Bayer, who was joined by Attorney General Dana Nessel and state environmental leaders.
"What the challenge is helping people understand they’re really big. I mean, a regular data center is about a football field size. These are like 17 to 18 football fields — one building. Think about that," Bayer said.
Not only are the facilities massive, but they also require a lot of energy to power and cool down servers. A data center in Saline Township, approved by energy regulators late last year, would require 1.4 gigawatts of energy. State leaders say that is equivalent to adding 1 million homes to the grid overnight.
Related video: Michigan Public Service Commission approves DTE contract for Saline Township data center project
"These data centers are probably coming one way or the other, so we might as well have as many guardrails so that we make sure we get this right so that the data centers that come to town, the centers aren’t going to affect our rates, they’re not going to affect our water and it’s going to protect Michigan ratepayers and taxpayers in the future," Nessel said.
Nessel said she is working to make sure there is full transparency and clear rules before more deals are approved, and keeping customers from paying for this new infrastructure through higher bills. Meanwhile, Bayer is working on legislation that aims to protect communities.
Related video: Google announces it's behind massive data center proposal in Van Buren Township
"I came here because it’s good to see thought leaders in our community and our elected officials trying to put a framework around and make it work for everyone because right now, it’s not sustainable and it’s not something that works," Christopher LaDuke said.
In January, the Northville City Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on data centers, halting the review of any data center applications.
Related video: Northville City Council unanimously approves 12-month data center moratorium
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