By Robert Haugh
Santa Clara has over 50 data centers and now the Mission City has approved another one.
Last night, the City Council unanimously approved a data center located at 2805 Bowers Avenue.
Numerous Councilmembers cited the aesthetics of building as a major reason for approving the data center.
GI Partners, the data center developers touted its community benefits that included tax revenue to the City with few city services required in return, like police services.
The data center also has little traffic impact since the building requires few employees to operate.
Numerous speakers supported the data center, mostly speakers from local labor unions. No residents showed up to oppose the project.
Interesting that a Bloomberg reporter is asking questions about the infestation of data centers in our beloved Santa Clara. Chime in the comments according to your opinion…
https://www.reddit.com/r/santaclara/comments/1fosfsc/anybody_willing_to_share_their_experience_living/
Buchser Alum,
Apologies on the prior links (less relevant). When observing the influx of “data centers” I may make mistakes (oops).
So I provide information for 2805 Bowers Ave. The California Energy Commission classifies this project as “Bowers Backup Generating Facility,” which is NOT—NOT— a Data center, unless one believes “data” is “energy.”
Not sure how just in November 2023 can be classified as a “Backup Generating Facility,” but approved by Our BELOVED city council as a “Data Center.”
As of November 8, 2023, the ‘California Energy Commission’ began review of “2805 Bowers Avenue”
https://www.energy.ca.gov/powerplant/backup-generating-system/bowers-backup-generating-facility
https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/Lists/DocketLog.aspx?docketnumber=22-SPPE-01
Help me learn the errors of my ways…
“Something is rotten in Denmark.”
Billy Shakespeare
Buchser Alum, it is hard to take someone too seriously when they don’t even use their real name. You say “…it should be industrial customers who get shoved .., careful you don’t ‘should’ all over yourself. Saying it should happen just gives your opinion, an anonymous one at that.
Solar and wind are not green unless you consider co2 a pollutant vs a necessary ingredient in the plant and animal life cycles. And both wind and solar have serious drawbacks, especially at end of life. So, you are right, I don’t care much for what the woke call renewable, and I am willing to say so using my own name. What a concept.
Howard,
I offered to you my thoughts based on my understanding of common utility practices but if you do not like what I had to say then that is your right. This is a local news blog not a court of law or scientific peer review process so I offered my understanding accordingly and you can follow up on your own to learn more. Or not as the case may be.
Buchser Alum,
Please break down and defend each of your sentences. Please even parse some sentences as some are a mixture of undefinable concepts. In my ignorance, I can’t parse ‘word salad’ and statements set forth without a solid foundation of fact. Help us learn your viewpoint.
I can understand economies of scale, but I also understand rolling brown outs and blackouts at state levels. We are not an island and purchase power from other sources. And yes, residential only uses 6.7% but when push comes to shove, who gets shoved?
(It will be nice if the columns below come out lined up) From city of SC showing uses of power. Another pdf shows that it comes from all over the state.
City-Owned Generating Facilities 922,915,117 20.1%
Joint Power Agencies 1,155,482,723 25.2%
Market Purchases/Sales 654,995,155 14.3%
Purchased Power Agreements 1,854,370,445 40.4%
Total 4,587,763,440 100.0%
Howard,
When push comes to shove it should be industrial customers who get shoved because marginal decreases in usage by less customers can free up gigantic amounts of capacity compared to what can be freed up with gigantic numbers of residential customers. In addition to this it is the industrial users who have backup generators and batteries. Because there is a higher ratio of industrial usage within SVP’s user base there is a more ability to load balance overall usage to keep power running for all residential users.
I do not recall the last time I had power go out due to a planned outage. The only recent outages I can remember were due to weather taking down power lines and SVP has always gotten power restored much faster than PG&E crews typically do. And I think a reason for this is that SVP is able to afford more workers in the field due to economies of scale created by having more industrial customers who also require less help in such situations because all their power lines are buried underground.
Howard,
The one big drawback of industrial users with gigantic power needs is that supporting them also means resorting to less environmentally friendly power generation but while many people are concerned about this I do not expect that this is a big concern of yours.
Buchser Alum,
I always try admit to be ignorant when all facts are not known. But what I convey in this forum is a combination of fact and opinion.
Have you reviewed information in these links?
Please tell us all who “scott galati” actually works for…. As you know, “lawyers” have “attorney-client” privilege to exclude disclosing, for example, that Putin or Russian Oligarchs are backing investment here. The 49er 5 are so corruptible that they’d allow this to happen…
Smells like corruption. Yet you seem to agree with the result. Fight for Santa Clara, not some ideology.
https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/Lists/DocketLog.aspx?docketnumber=23-SPPE-01
https://rocketreach.co/scott-galati-email_141625797
I did not watch the meeting nor do I know how much consideration has been given to the amount of energy these use. The data centers use so much energy and provide practically no jobs, once they are built, it is a concern. And we are not going to be able to supply this new electricity via solar or wind. I would hate to see our energy prices going up as a result of the excess demand. I realize, or hope, that all this is being taken into consideration, but I have seen examples of govt errors that let short term gains cause long term problems. Just call me chicken little.
Howard,
Data centers in Santa Clara help residents get cheaper power and better service. With the data centers gigantic usage of electricity Silicon Valley Power operates at a gigantically larger scale than it would if only serving residential and low power business users. This creates economies of scale for cheaper purchasing and more infrastructure and staffing that benefits everyone who is an SVP customer.
I do not like the approval of this data center however. It is out of place on Bowers.