As data-center boom approaches, Lehigh Valley officials working to prepare

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Data centers are becoming the invisible backbone of modern life, powering a world of online interactions and transactions, according to their many proponents.

But they’re anything but hidden in the communities where they operate.

And Lehigh Valley Planning Commission is working with representatives from five local municipalities to help them prepare for data center proposals in their communities.

About 4,000 data centers are online in the United States, including more than 100 in Pennsylvania, according to the Data Center Map, a leading industry researcher.

They range from microscale data centers that support small businesses to hyperscale facilities that serve some of the world’s best-known tech companies.

Residents and planners across the United States have raised major concerns about how companies are powering data facilities that cover millions of square feet in their communities — and keeping them cool and controlled.

Data centers collectively used 183 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024, accounting for more than 4% of all electric consumption in the United States, according to Pew Research Center.

And that figure is projected to climb to about 9% by 2030, Pew said.

Extreme power requirements

A terawatt-hour equals 1 billion kilowatt-hours; the average U.S. home uses about 11,000 kilowatt-hours of energy annually, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Data centers used more than a quarter of all electricity consumed last year in Virginia, which is home to more than 600 of them — the most of any state in the country.

About a third of those are in Loudoun County, known as Data Center Alley. It has about 200 facilities covering almost 50 million square feet.

And more are popping up there and across the United States to support ever-growing digital infrastructure and increasingly popular technologies such as generative artificial intelligence.

A typical data center focused on AI can consume enough energy to power about 100,000 households, according to the International Energy Agency.

But Becky Bradley, executive director of Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, has said the energy used by some hyperscale data centers could power a half-million homes.

That huge spike in demand has pushed monthly electricity costs up more than 200% from five years ago for other grid customers in some places near significant data center activity, according to a Bloomberg report published in September.

'A part of daily infrastructure'

Lehigh Valley Planning Commission held workshops this month to educate residents and officials on data centers and detail what planners should be concerned about when considering proposals.

Data centers have “become a part of daily infrastructure, just the same as plumbing or electricity,” Mary Grace Collins, a community and regional planner for LVPC, said Feb. 11.

The facilities underpin e-banking, online school, telehealth, video streaming services and so much more, Collins said.

“Data centers are the physical space that actually makes all of those things happen,” Collins said, explaining how they repeatedly process endless requests for information “within a fraction of a second.”

“Data centers aren't new, but they are evolving quickly, and digital demand is growing as those types of technologies advance,” she said.

“The more that we automate tasks, machinery and artificial intelligence, the [more] demand for data centers will grow.”

Locals preparing for data centers

Officials in Upper Macungie, South Whitehall, North Whitehall and Upper Saucon townships in recent months have worked to draft new ordinances and amend rules now on their books ahead of an expected boom of data-center facilities in the region and beyond.

Upper Macungie’s board of supervisors in December approved an amendment to regulate where and how data centers can operate.

Officials were working to include them as a new use in an upcoming comprehensive rewrite of the township’s zoning code, but moved up those plans as Air Products prepared its proposal to build a data center complex at its former headquarters on Cetronia Road.

Plans are reviewed under ordinances in place at the time of submission.

The proposal, which includes three data center buildings spanning 2.6 million square feet — or about 45 football fields — closely aligns with Air Products’ previous plans to build three warehouses.

Upper Macungie officials approved that proposal in 2023.

The Fortune 500 company’s proposal says the data center would use the same amount of water as the warehouse plans and generate much less traffic.

But it doesn’t show how much electricity the facilities would need — among several omissions that left LVPC officials unable to provide an adequate review late last year.

The township’s new data center ordinance was adopted less than two weeks before Air Products submitted its proposal.

It requires the company to provide proof PPL can provide sufficient power and complete an assessment of the data center’s effects of electric rates and availability for other customers on the grid.

Upper Macungie Township Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday night granted Air Products’ request to table the proposal until May.

South Whitehall proposal

South Whitehall Township officials are considering many of the same regulations for data centers as a developer pursues plans to build a massive data center complex on a property neighboring Parkland High School.

CDE Acquisitions proposes to consolidate several lots into a 410-acre property that would house six data center facilities spanning 5.1 million square feet, equivalent to more than 90 football fields.

Its plans for the lot also feature an electrical substation with emergency generators and more than 3 miles of new roadway.

South Whitehall Township’s proposed ordinance would implement a slew of regulations for data centers, including minimum lot sizes, maximum building heights and increased setbacks from some properties.

If approved by township supervisors, it would require developers to assess a proposed data center’s impacts on water and sewer lines, emergency services, and Parkland School District’s budget.

It also would force developers to study its effects on air and soil quality, groundwater and surface water, and wildlife habitat.

More proposals popping up

Lower Mount Bethel officials soon could weigh a data center proposal after amending the township’s zoning ordinances last year to allow them in the community.

Peron Development and J.G. Petrucci Company plan a data center campus along Gravel Hill Road and Martins Creek Belvidere Highway.

Details were sparse immediately after the companies made their announcement Wednesday, but executives said the campus — known as the Lower Mount Bethel Tech Center — would create hundreds of jobs during construction and full-time operations and generate millions of dollars in new tax revenues for the township and school districts.

A Change.org petition with thousands of signatures is urging township residents to actively oppose the data center proposal.

The petition cites a slew of concerns, including increased traffic, noise pollution and water and soil contamination, as well as potential impacts to the Delaware River Scenic Byway.

“This will not only contribute to environmental degradation but also alter the very fabric of our community,” the petition states.

Lower Mount Bethel Township Planning Commission is set to review the proposal March 17.