Data centers: What are they and how could they impact Brunswick County?
Energy-intensive data centers are now permitted outright in some Brunswick County areas.
Brunswick County leaders approved a proposed text amendment to update the county’s unified development ordinance clarifying that data centers are allowed in industrial general zoning districts in the county.
According to Palo Alto Networks, data centers are facilities that centralize an organization’s information technology operations and equipment “for the purposes of storing, processing and disseminating data and applications.” Data centers, according to the cybersecurity company, house important assets and are “vital” to ensuring organizations and businesses are able to operate each day.
These facilities are used to store, distribute, generate, manage, process and transmit digital data.
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As modern organizations move away from on-site physical servers and toward virtualized, cloud support systems, data centers play an integral role in supporting businesses. There are reportedly 7 million data centers worldwide, with practically every business and government entity using such a facility in some capacity, according to Palo Alto Networks.
The industrial general zone permits largely manufacturers, factories and warehouses in large land areas that are set back from more highly trafficked residential or commercial areas.
In August, the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners approved a request from the Brunswick County Board of Education regarding the construction of two containerized data centers – one to be built near the Center of Applied Sciences and Technology in Bolivia and one to be built near North Brunswick High School in Leland.
Read this: Brunswick’s rapid growth is impacting public schools. Are more tax dollars needed?
The design and construction of the two centers is estimated to cost nearly $2.5 million. The small, containerized centers will measure 25 feet long, 12 feet wide and 12 feet high.
While the new Brunswick County Schools data centers are set to be powered by existing utility transformers, the energy usage of larger centers could strain the county’s current infrastructure.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers consume 10 to 50 times more energy than a typical commercial office building. Data centers account for approximately 2% of the electricity used in the country, with that only expected to grow as the use of information technology grows, the department says.
In September, the Brunswick County Planning Board held a public hearing a unanimously approved the recommended text amendment. Kirstie Dixon, Brunswick County’s planning director, said data centers were, at that time, not addressed in the county’s unified development ordinance, and needed to be added. That need prompted the requested text amendment.
In October, the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to adopt the text amendment, adding data centers as a permitted use in the light industrial grouping in the industrial general zoning district in the county. The text amendment also provides a definition for data centers, which further clarifies that associated components related to digital data storage – such as substations, generators, antennas, utility poles and towers – are also permitted.
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Jamey Cross covers Brunswick County for the StarNews. Reach her at jbcross@gannett.com or message her on Twitter/X @jameybcross.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: What to know about data centers coming to Brunswick County
