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Residents urge council to adopt guardrails for hyperscale data centers
Summary
Public commenters urged New Castle County Council to pass ordinance 25101 and other controls on hyperscale data centers, citing large generator counts and massive power draws for proposed projects and potential community impacts.
During public comment at the Feb. 10 meeting, multiple residents urged council to adopt protections against hyperscale data centers and asked for passage of ordinance 25101.
Dale Swain argued that existing data centers are much smaller than proposed hyperscale projects and cited figures he said illustrated the difference: he told council that a current large local facility uses about 87 megawatts while a hyperscale project (cited as "Project Washington") uses roughly 1,200 megawatts and would have hundreds of diesel generators. "The comparison between existing data centers and the hyperscale is huge difference," Swain said, urging passage of ordinance 25101 to put controls in place.
Dora Williams also spoke in support of protective measures and framed the issue as part of broader concerns about rising bills and community hardship. Councilmembers did not vote on ordinance 25101 during the Feb. 10 meeting; the comments were recorded as public testimony.
