Delaware already has data centers.  Each has 5 people per shift and operates across 3 shifts so roughly 24 per each are employed… So  those 24  jobs added to the Newark economy, need to be balanced against the amount of money a loud data center will drive away.  Does it lower home value?  One would think, and would that total lowering of home values due to a “twenty four hour conversation”, cost the city more than would 24 jobs?  Most likely, yes.

Secondly, Newark Delaware has recently had a boom of building activity.  Main Street West, as well as Delaware Avenue, and don’t forget the University construction on Loering Street.   How much increase did all of New Castle County’s businesses get uplifted from all that activity? Building the power plant will employ less.

So when the lobbyists begin promising jobs, remember, in a data center, there are not that many jobs.  Computers run themselves.

Furthermore, data centers have issues with getting good help on board.

At a roundtable of Data Center managers, several problems were evident. Good people don’t stay; they jump shift quite often.

One reason they don’t stay is because of job pressure– the pressure to keep data centers on line and up and running all the time. One thing goes wrong, they lose their jobs.  Therefore they are on the constant lookout for centers that have the means to avoid those interruption, and therefore provide a higher level of security.

What is known as densities, has increased over the past 5 years immensely.. That is the number of transactions per minute.  They are way up due to technological advancements.  Which means one small one half-second glitch, would wipe out data for one half of the United States of America .

The roundtable also dipped into carbon emissions.  Data Centers use a lot of electricity.  More than a town.  A data center must have a constant front against accusations it is damaging the environment worse than anything other than a coal plant…

The perfect employee for a data center does not need a college degree nor does he need certification in computers. Actually someone who hacks games and can bypass securities and download copyrighted material, is the perfect candidate recommended to work inside a data center.  Sort of turns the world on it’s end, doesn’t it?

So Newark. here is the bottom line.  What do you want to do?

Do you want a 240 Megawatt gas turbine power plant next to your domicile, or don’t you?  You will have a few people with bacon grease hair, all selling you how great having jobs will be.   Just remember they are selling!  Just like that guy who promises you the car you buy, can fly to Japan and back.  Both are selling.

Looking across the nation, whenever a company comes in, they always say they will hire 200+.  If they have their own power plant, it actually is between 30 and 50.  In Delaware, the  bank’s data centers themselves, usually run a crew of 24 on the average.

So 24 kids making $50,000 nets $1.2 million.   If nearby houses lose $10,000 in asking price due to the data center’s twenty-four hour conversation, it would take 120 houses to suck that gain right out of the air.  Then every single other house selling under its estimate as well,  pulls Newark further into a hole worse off than it is today…..

120 Homes are basically two streets worth.

There are over 100 streets within a radius of one mile from the power plant…

This will create a net loss for Newark, unless the taxes paid by the data center more than make up for the lost revenue the depression of house values will cause over the next 75 years…

But that is just calculations, and calculations don’t mean anything.  The bottom line, Newark, is what do you want to do?  Do you need more jobs?  More traffic?  More power outages?  More noises?  More carbon dioxide? More aggravation?

Don’t be intimidated by the bacon grease lobbyists.  They usually only interact with members of the General Assembly who get intimidated rather easily.  Stand up to them if you wish.  They are just people hired to paint only one side of an issue in glowing colors.  Doesn’t mean we have to believe them, especially when we have the Internet that can tell us the truth with two clicks… 🙂

Bottom line, it is what you want to do.  Choose to fight it, and if there are enough of you, …. it is not going in….. No one wants to take the blame for depreciating Newark’s house values by $10,000 a pop, if you make it an issue…