KEARNEY — The Kearney City Council will discuss a conditional use permit for a 368 megawatt data center during their meeting this evening.
Worldwide Mission Critical, which is seeking approval for a conditional use permit (CUP) for a data center, the location would be east of Antelope Ave. and south of Tech One Blvd and Global Drive.
The proposed location for the data center is surrounded by an office and vacant land to the north, an existing data center – Cryptocurrency mining and solar farm to the south, according to the City of Kearney memo.
Per current data center regulations, the facilities total electrical demand will be 368 megawatts. The project was described as a medium sized data center.
The site already has an existing 100 megawatts. of capacity that will be repurposed, from the cryptocurrency operation, to support the first phase.
The proposed Data Center will use closed-loop chilled water systems that require a one-time fill; the water is then contained and reused.
The largest consumptive use of water by the data center will be maintaining the landscaping around the facility, which is required by City of Kearney regulations.
It will take around two million gallons of water per year to maintain the landscape. The data center alone would use around 1,200 gallons per day, which is around the same use as five residential homes.
The Planning Commission had voted unanimously to approve recommendation of the data center CUP to the city council meeting.
During the same meeting, the council will discuss data center regulations.
The proposed code amendments include commercial use types, zoning district regulations, levels of permitted uses, supplemental use regulations, commercial uses, off street parking and schedule of off-street parking.
Jensen said around 10 pages of additional regulations had been added to address data centers.
These included setbacks, to residential uses and zoning, additional on-site setbacks, noise and vibration standards, including low frequency and tonal noise, set sound level limits at the property line of the data center, requiring sound, water and wastewater feasibility, confirming electrical needs and utility infrastructure, air quality measurements, ongoing compliance and annual reporting and operational performance standards.
Another part of the code update is adding the conditional use permit (CUP) for data centers, which involves two public hearings, one during the planning commission meeting and another at the city council meeting.
The planning commission makes a recommendation to the city council, who has the final say over a CUP.
“This will be the most regulated industry in Kearney,” City Manager Brenda Jensen told the planning commission at their Aug. 21 meeting.