Few New Data Center Details Revealed at Summit

Tuesday’s Economic Summit did not reveal many new facts about the data center coming to San Angelo.

The city will prepare a Chapter 380 agreement to regulate the 348-acre tract located north of town on U.S. Highway 67, near the Red Creek Substation, which, according to the developers, was a major factor in selecting the site.

Earlier reporting showed that the water usage for the proposed system will be relatively minimal, compared to other data centers, cooled by a closed-loop system.

Executives with Emergent Data Centers, the company tasked with constructing and eventually leasing the 4 million-square-foot facility, say that after the initial loading, daily water draw at the facility would consist of toilets flushing and mop buckets being filled, likely no more than the average big box store would use.

Addressing concerns of noise pollution, company representatives said the facility would not be very noisy, producing, at most, around 70 decibels of audible sound outside the facility, they say.

During the discussion, Mayor Tom Thompson asked the sound engineer what the decibel level of the Cactus Ballroom was at that time, which the engineer confirmed was close to that mark, at around 75 decibels.

One speaker noted that emergency generators would increase the noise level somewhat, but they would only be in use for about 30 minutes a month to ensure operational readiness.

Lastly, in terms of the overall appearance of the facility, CEO Chris Sumter characterized the aesthetics as similar to a “Class-A Office.”

What Else?

While several issues were discussed, others fell by the wayside, perhaps most notably, housing.

According to Emergent Chief Technology Officer Mike Coleman, project managers expect at least 3,000-5,000 people to be working on the site daily until it’s completed.

Coleman said that while actual construction might provide some local jobs, but the bulk of electrical and mechanical engineers needed for the project would most likely come from elsewhere.

To meet this demand, he stated “We would have to come in and build housing.”

Further details were not addressed.

The Company

Emergent Data Centers appears to be a new company with little information available online, but have significant capital to invest, as their business model builds and then eventually leases the facility to data management companies, like Skybox Data Systems, who only run the actual data systems inside.

Sumter described Emergent’s role as essentially “a landlord” for the data companies.

Sumter said that cities where Emergent has constructed have placed many demands on the facilities and the company, which he says they’re happy to comply with.

“Every community is different, and we’ve engaged different communities in different ways. I don’t know what the community needs, so first and foremost is really getting in, sitting down, and listening…where can we be helpful,” said Sumter.

He recalled one project in Illinois: “The name of the village is Elk Grove village, so the mayor asked me for more than a million dollar’s worth of bronze Elk statues to be placed around town, which we didn’t do,”

To which Mayor Thompson replied: “I’d be real careful about what you’re saying…”

Sumter continued: “Sitting down with the local school district…asking what are some of the projects or programs they have that we can sponsor. Working with economic development, and seeing what are some of the things that the community doesn’t have the budget for that they would really like to have.

“In Michigan, at one of our projects, they didn’t want to see our facility, so they wanted us to build burms around the campus. But they also wanted us to donate acreage and build a large sports complex, they wanted us to build ball fields….okay, it’s not really that expensive in the grand scheme of things.

“When you’re building data centers, ball fields are cheap.”

On their website, Emergent has provided a brochure for the San Angelo project, the intro reads:

“Emergent Data Centers is bringing powered shell capacity to one of Texas’s most strategic locations for AI and HPC workloads. With direct 345kV interconnection to AEP’s transmission network and exceptional municipal support, SA1 delivers the power density, infrastructure redundancy, and expansion flexibility required for the most demanding computational workloads in a market with room to grow.”

This, and statements about the continual internal “refresh” of tech infrastructure made by Coleman during the panel, contradict what was initially advertised about the facility by city leaders late last year about the facilities ability to host AI infrastructure, though in their defense it seems like they didn’t have the most recent information.

The facility would be adapted over time to meet new data needs as they emerge.

CORRECTION: The report previously read that Sumter said “classy office” — this has been changed to “Class-A Office” to refer to a designation of commercial real estate design.