Developer says West Burlington data center can expand without straining utilities

Charlie, a land agent with RM Capital Ventures, told the Des Moines County Board of Supervisors he began the project by seeking “existing power” next to Big River Resources and that the current site is operating at about 4.25–5 megawatts.

Charlie said the present site uses dry-cooler technology and that, under normal operation, the current containers have not required water; he told the board the high‑end annual water use for the existing 5 MW setup would be “right in between 225 to 350 gallons per year,” and that a fully wet‑cooled 25 MW build could use in the tens of millions of gallons annually if customers selected water cooling. He added: “Were not gonna increase your bills. In fact, in Grudy Center, Iowa, we reduced the cost of electricity by 19% when we set up shop up there.” (Charlie)

The presentation focused on three concerns raised by supervisors and residents: power availability, water use, and noise/safety. Charlie said Eastern Iowa Light & Power had told the company there was approximately 5 MW of available capacity at the substation adjacent to the site and that expanding to 25 MW would require upgrades to transmission and a new substation/transformer. He estimated CapEx for a 25 MW, building‑based expansion (excluding customer computing equipment) at roughly $300 million and suggested much of the cost would be spent locally during construction.

On electricity use, Charlie said a 5 MW site uses roughly 43,000,000 kilowatt‑hours per year and that a 25 MW expansion would use about 219,000,000 kWh/year. He described the companys routine demand‑response arrangements with the utility that enable rapid curtailment when the grid is stressed: “We can drop from 4.25 megawatts down to basically just the vans running… We can do that in five minutes.” (Charlie)

On water and environmental concerns, Charlie explained the facility uses closed‑loop dry coolers and that when water is used it is typically evaporated in the system; he said the operations he described do not discharge chemical additives into sewer systems and that routine maintenance produces calcium and lime deposits that are cleaned and disposed of as solids. He acknowledged that large, industrial wet‑cooled data centers can create a different set of issues and emphasized the county should shape zoning language with input from utilities and the local water supplier.

Supervisors and staff pressed for specifics. County Engineer Brian Carter and Conservation staff said they will continue vetting utility responses and environmental implications. A board member noted prior complaints about condensation near Highway 34 and asked staff to seek Eastern Iowa REC and Rathburn Water input before drafting any county rules that would permit or restrict specific cooling systems.

The presenter offered to provide the board with his slides and invited supervisors and residents to tour the existing West Burlington site following the meeting. The board said the information would inform an upcoming county work session and any ordinance or moratorium discussions.

Provenance: presentation began SEG 1176 and discussion continued through SEG 3028.