Data center protest in Van Buren Township targets 1-gigawatt proposal

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Demonstrators plan to protest ahead of a Van Buren Township Planning Commission meeting Wednesday as the township considers plans for an 800,000-square-foot data center north of I-94, between Haggerty and Hannan roads.

The public outreach on the project has been inadequate, protest organizers said in a Facebook post, adding that the 1-gigawatt project could strain local utilities.

A petition to stop the data center, which has over 1,300 signatures, says the project’s energy demands will arrive as residents are already seeing higher bills and power outages. It calls attention to a similar project in Howell Township that was paused in the face of widespread public opposition.

The facility will use between 2 and 3.6 million gallons of water a day, employing “open loop” cooling methods as well as possible closed loop and forced air methods, according to a frequently asked questions document on the township’s website. The data center will purchase this water from the township, which is supplied by the Great Lakes Water Authority.

Representatives for project developer Panattoni Development Co. and the township previously told Planet Detroit the project could use roughly 1 gigawatt of electricity, equivalent to the energy required to power around 800,000 homes.

The project will use ultra-low sulfur diesel backup generators to supply the data center with power during an outage, according to the project FAQ. The generators will use “high performance exhaust scrubbers” to remove 90% of particulates, the document says.  

Panattoni’s data center proposal is not on Wednesday’s planning commission meeting agenda. The developer is expected to go before the commission at the Feb. 11 meeting, Ron Akers, municipal services director for Van Buren Township, told Planet Detroit.

Data center may offer ‘very little’ to the community, residents says

Data center proposals in other townships have encountered opposition because of the facilities’ often enormous power and energy demands, as well as fears they could pass on costs to other electric ratepayers and imperil state climate goals.

Data centers risk triggering an “off ramp” provision in Michigan’s climate law, allowing fossil fuel generation to stay online if there’s a capacity shortage.

In a Dec. 23 letter in support of the project, DTE Energy Director of Policy and Regional Affairs Daniel Mahoney said Michigan’s data center tax break law ensures that “residential customers are not subject to higher costs or subsidized rates when these projects are developed.”

Yet energy experts previously told Planet Detroit the tax break law, which applies to large data centers receiving tax incentives, lacks specifics on how it would protect ratepayers, and the facilities’ costs could still be passed on to other ratepayers.

Van Buren Township resident Sanjay Singh, who is active in organizing against the Wayne Disposal Inc. landfill expansion, said in an email that he is still weighing the benefits and drawbacks of the data center proposal. 

“From what I’ve observed, the general community sentiment is currently a resounding ‘no,'” he said.

The project holds massive revenue potential, but it’s unclear how much investment the community will receive, Singh said.

“If the township only receives standard water/sewer fees and basic property tax, this is a waste of land,” he said.

“We would be trading thousands of potential jobs for a facility that offers very little to the local economy.”

The protest will take place at 5 p.m. at Van Buren Township Hall, 46425 Tyler Road, Van Buren Township, MI 48111. 

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