The data center boom has arrived in small-town Beaver County with little of the fanfare that’s accompanied similar proposals across Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Shippingport Council granted several zoning modifications last week that allow Texas-based Aligned Data Centers to build a sprawling campus — dubbed “Project Phoenix” — next to the old Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant.
Documents obtained by TribLive detail plans for up to three data centers, each larger than 600,000 square feet, as well as a warehouse, natural gas power generation pad, stormwater management facilities and 250 parking spots.
Aligned, which has built dozens of these facilities across the U.S. and South America, isn’t in the clear yet. The borough must still decide whether the firm can exceed noise limits while it carries out around-the-clock construction. A hearing on the matter is expected within a couple of months.
The firm must also obtain building and subdivision permits.
But if the project clears those hurdles, Shippingport could become home to one of the largest data center campuses in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
These sites often house tens or hundreds of thousands of chips that supply the computing power for artificial intelligence. They also tend to generate community resistance because of their constant hum, minimal local economic impact, water use for cooling and — when connected to the grid — strain on the electricity supply.
Aligned responded to TribLive questions about the cost, construction timeline and other crucial project details with a statement from its executive vice president of brand strategy, Joanna Soucy.
“We are working closely and transparently with all appropriate local bodies and city officials to ensure our proposed project aligns with the community’s vision and requirements,” Soucy said. “Our goal is to be a great neighbor for years to come.”
The campus would generate an unnamed number of “high-quality jobs,” she added.
Power plays
Electric company FirstEnergy closed the Bruce Mansfield plant in 2019 as the U.S. turned away from coal power. (Retirements have since slowed, largely because data centers are causing a sharp increase in electricity demand.)
The facility and hundreds of surrounding acres were purchased in 2022 by the New York-based Frontier Group of Cos. and consolidated into Shippingport Industrial Park. The park makes up about a third of the borough, and within that, Aligned plans to use a majority of the land.
It was revealed during the Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in July that Frontier is investing up to $3.2 billion to convert the coal-fired plant into one that burns natural gas.
When Frontier is finished, the facility will have 3.6 gigawatts of generation capacity. A gigawatt is equivalent to nearly 300 wind turbines or about half the power of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
Several attempts to reach Frontier for comment were unsuccessful.
The data centers would be initially powered by two natural gas-based generators separate from Frontier’s conversion project, according to Shippingport Solicitor Richard Urick. The Frontier-owned plant could eventually supply the data centers with electricity, he added.
Clashes elsewhere
The latest census estimate counts about 150 residents in Shippingport. Borough officials say there are no more than 100.
Regardless of how many people call Shippingport home, a bulk of them live in a small grid between the old power plant and the still-active Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station. The cooling towers for both sites are visible from these streets. Aligned’s data centers would lie on the other side of the former Bruce Mansfield plant.
Despite the close proximity, the proposed data centers don’t appear to be generating a significant community response. Only four residents attended last week’s hearing, according to Shippingport Secretary Kayla Wilkinson.
Some data centers move from vision to reality almost unimpeded. This was the case in Upper Burrell, where Florida-based data center developer TECfusions announced its plans for the former Alcoa Research and Development campus in late 2024 and secured its first tenant in January.
Springdale saw an outpouring of resistance to a more than 500,000-square-foot data center on the cleared site of a former coal-fired power plant. In December, council voted to permit the project with a host of conditions, in part over fears of a lawsuit if they didn’t.
Perhaps no regional data center project has activated community and environmental groups quite like the one proposed in Homer City. Opponents say the benefits of the project, which will be fueled by switching a retired power plant from coal to natural gas, won’t be worth the significant air and water pollution.
On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro said his administration will only throw its full support behind data centers that meet what he’s calling the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards. These criteria call on developers to fund or build new power generation to meet their needs, carry out transparent community engagement, hire local workers and strike community benefits agreements.
Michael Price, 69, is still forming his thoughts on the Shippingport campus. He lives in the borough’s main cluster of homes, closer to the old Bruce Mansfield plant than the nuclear reactors.
For now, he’s of the mind that beggars can’t be choosers.
“With Beaver County in the state that it’s in, it will be good to have anything moving in,” he said.