Unwanted AI

Someone wants to build a hyperscale data center a few miles from my house, across the border in Hermantown.

I say “someone” because the identity of the company is a secret.

Back in April, a homeowner discovered that someone was buying land in the area, and asked the council for information. He was told that two members of the council had signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and that no information about the land sales was public. We (the public) then found out that three county commissioners had also signed NDAs. By May, there was public speculation that the project was a massive data center.

One county commissioner has challenged whether commissioners should sign NDAs and keep projects secret from the public, but her motion to discuss a ban received no other votes, with Chairman Commissioner Keith Nelson saying “I don’t give a shit what you think”. (Yes, he was one of the commissioners who signed an NDA.)

At the end of September, the Hermantown city council confirmed that yes, the project was a data center, when they published an Alternative Urban Area-wide Review (AUAR). An AUAR is a faster alternative to a full Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW). To push the project through with just an AUAR, the city council and developers had categorized it as including “communication service facility equipment”. The project was originally called Project Loon.

On Monday — October 21st — the Hermantown City Council scheduled a hearing to rezone the land for the data center from residential to light industrial, to clear the way for the project to continue. I decided to attend the meeting; I took notes, and also spoke about economic concerns for three minutes. (More about that in another article.)

Facts about the development #

Here’s what I know right now.

The plan is to develop 220 acres of land in the Adolph neighborhood of Hermantown. The initial project will be a 300,000 square foot data center building (27,870m²).

The diagram in the AUAR that shows the building doesn’t have a scale marked, so I measured from the image and compared with known distances between roads. It looks like the building will be about 930′×330′ (280×100m), which more or less agrees with the figure of 300,000 square feet. There will be additional equipment outside, taking the total space to around 1,000′×870′ (300×265m). We were told that the building will be 50′ high (15m).

Eventually, the mystery company hopes to build four such buildings in the rezoned area, which will take about 8-10 years. Combined with associated offices and utility buildings, the total is 1.8 million square feet of building space (about 167,000m²). The data center building closest to the road will be around 380′ away from it (115m).

The entire development will be surrounded by a secure perimeter. The plans call for a berm on the east side, about a third of the height of the building, and a wall on top of that, slightly less tall than the berm. To the north side they plan another wall. The intent is for the berm and walls to reduce noise as well as visual impact.

Minnesota law restricts noise pollution to 60dbA during the day, 50dbA at night. The plan is for the buildings to not exceed 50dBA. However, a decibel (A) filter response curve makes sound meters much less sensitive at low frequencies, and data center noise is very low frequency. This means dbA is not a good measure for data center noise. It also means that the noise is very tough to block using berms or other acoustic barriers. I don’t know enough about acoustics to speculate how bad it will be, but I wouldn’t want to be one of the people with a house less than 300′ from the development.

On the plus side, we’re told that the data center will not use water for cooling, which suggests closed loop cooling. Actual water usage is expected to be similar to other light industrial developments, and comparable to 2–5% of Hermantown’s current water usage. The city is at close to capacity at peak times, so the plan is for the city to build a new elevated water tower.

Hermantown gets its water from Duluth, and Duluth gets it from Lake Superior. Apparently Duluth has plenty of capacity, but there was conflicting information about whether Hermantown has actually discussed the project with Duluth.

According to Minnesota Power, the mystery customer will be required to pay all the grid connection costs. This is a legal requirement, part of the data center legislation that was passed earlier this year. That’s obviously part of the reason why the site was chosen — it’s right next to a major Minnesota Power substation, as well as being fairly close to a railway line for bringing in heavy equipment.

The new data center law requires that data centers do not lead to increased electricity bills for consumers; in Minnesota, electricity prices are regulated by the state. That said, Minnesota Power is part of ALLETE, which was just purchased by BlackRock, so people are understandably skeptical that they won’t end up paying more for electricity.

The area to be developed is currently wetlands, with some single family homes around the perimeter. Hermantown council apparently did the bare minimum legally required and notified people within 350′ of the proposed rezoning, but didn’t notify the city as a whole.

We were told that the Fond du Lac tribe have been consulted, since the area is land ceded under the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe. There wasn’t really any information given about what the tribe might have said.

Reassurance was given that there wouldn’t be any light pollution.

Public opinion #

The main council meeting room was filled to capacity. The overflow room was also filled to capacity, and people gathered in the corridors and outside, over 300 people in all. If I had to summarize the mood in one word, it would be “angry”.

Members of the public who wished to speak were able to sign up ahead of the meeting and speak for up to 3 minutes. I didn’t keep an exact count, but there were 3-4 people from business development organizations who spoke in favor, 3-4 union leaders in favor, and a couple of individual citizens. Everyone else — around 70 people — spoke against the development. After that, the city council unanimously approved the rezoning.

A grassroots group Stop the Hermantown Data Center subsequently filed a request with the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board asking for a full environmental review. As a result, the Hermantown City Council delayed consideration of the development permits, which they had hoped to deal with the day after the rezoning.

(I did not use AI to write this post, or any other post on my web site.)