[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheGreen_05022014_1-ClaymontNewark.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's Tom Byrne and contributor Jon Hurdle discuss community concerns in Newark and Claymont over energy-related projects.]
As a planned power plant and data center for the University of Delaware’s STAR campus edges closer to becoming a reality, its developer and local critics remain deeply divided over whether the project would damage the local environment, boost the economy, or turn Newark into an industrial zone.
Following the Newark Board of Adjustment’s formal approval of the plan this week, opponents considered a court challenge, challenged the validity of the project’s zoning approval, and argued that they had been excluded from the early planning process by a secretive company and a compliant city administration.
The developer, The Data Centers LLC (TDC), argued that the natural gas-fueled plant will have less environmental impact than the Chrysler factory that previously operated on the site; will not produce excess quantities of power, and will provide a multi-million-dollar boost to the local economy.
But critics were unpersuaded.
Amy Roe, a founder of Newark Residents Against the Power Plant, said opponents are considering whether to appeal the Board’s approval of the zoning verification for the plant, which would generate power for a data center. The group has 30 days from April 30 in which to file an appeal to the Delaware Superior Court.
Meanwhile, the residents’ group is pursuing a number of other strategies designed to cancel or at least delay the power plant project.
They include a petition filed on the group’s behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union to the state Attorney General, claiming that some opponents were illegally excluded from a Board of Adjustment meeting on March 19 because of a decision by the board chairman to allow twice as many union members as non-union members into the room.
The group, which opposes the power plant but not the data center itself, also argues that a TDC “phasing chart” describing the center’s power needs contained arithmetical errors and contradictions. The company has now submitted a revised chart with “significant changes” which Roe said call into question the validity of the zoning verification.
“We have a very complicated mess on our hands,” she told WDDE. “What we would like is for the zoning verification letter issued in January to be withdrawn.”
She said the City of Newark’s planning department does not have anyone on staff with the expertise to evaluate a power plant application, so any re-evaluation should be done by an outside consultant with the relevant experience, and without a conflict of interest.
On its web site, Roe’s group accuses the company and the City of a lack of transparency about the project, and of failing to involve the community in its plans.
Using a Freedom of Information Act request, Roe said she obtained documents showing that the City of Newark had been secretly negotiating with TDC to bring the power plant to the city for more than a year.
“The powers that be in government, as far as the City of Newark, and the state government, they really want this power plant, and they have been working against the people,” she said.
Roe criticized Gov. Jack Markell for backing the plan, and speculated that he is looking for a job-creating project after the failure of others that have attracted state support during his administration.
Fisker Automotive’s plan to revive the old GM plant at Boxwood Road failed with the company’s bankruptcy despite $21.5 million in state loans and grants that were made on condition that the company would create 2,495 local jobs by the end of 2015.
Meanwhile, while Bloom Energy’s manufacture of fuel cells, which attracted up to $16.5 million in state money to help generate 1,500 direct and indirect jobs, has not created as many jobs as expected, Roe said.
Despite her criticism of state and city administrations, Roe praised Newark City Council for its recent requirements that it must approve any power-purchase agreement between TDC and the local utility.
And she denied the Board of Adjustment’s approval represents a big setback for opponents.
“I would not consider it a big blow,” she said. “This was the first step in the appeal process. I’m very optimistic about the quality of our legal argument, and I feel as though we have a very strong case.”
Meanwhile, TDC defended the plant as environmentally economically benign.
Brian Honish, vice president of business development, dismissed critics’ claims that the plant would pollute air and water while subjecting surrounding homes, schools and businesses to excessive noise.
The plant will use only 10 percent of the water that was used by the old Chrysler plant, and will have an additional water line and tanks on site as backups, he said.
The plant will also be subject to “very strict” air-quality standards for carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxide set by state and federal governments, and must meet those requirements, even on “critical load days” when the plant is meeting higher-than-normal demand, he said.
“If we don’t follow those, we will be shut down,” he said.
Honish pledged that noise would not exceed the legal limit of 52 decibels or lower at the property line, and that any spinning machinery will be housed inside.
He also rejected criticism that the plant will be producing far more power than the data center needs. Opponents are basing their arguments on the amount of power that the company has used in its air-permit application to Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, he said.
The company has to apply for air permitting for every piece of equipment on site when the plant is running at full capacity, totaling 279 megawatts, above the 248 MW capacity of the plant itself, and above the plant’s actual output, Honish said.
Some criticism has not been based on fact, he said. “In more than a few cases, they are letting their imaginations go a little wild. There have been some allegations thrown out there that, quite frankly, I have no idea where these things are coming from.”
Honish acknowledged that the project was initially discussed with the City of Newark without public disclosure but argued that the company has no obligation to announce its business plans, which could be compromised by competitors.
“Because this is a proprietary process that we are using, we didn’t want to share our secret sauce with the public,” Honish said. “Google doesn’t tell you how they build their data centers or what their components are or where their power comes from.
“We’ve done nothing wrong, we’re following the traditional course of business,” he said. “There’s nothing that we’re hiding.”
The plan has the financial and verbal backing of the Markell administration.
Alan Levin, secretary of the Delaware Economic Development Office, said the state’s New Jobs Infrastructure Fund has agreed to provide TDC with $7.5 million to help bring a second natural gas line to Newark from Pennsylvania.
The funding is based not only on TDC’s need for natural gas to run its power plant, but also on the demand from other local companies, including Dow Chemical and Siemens, Levin said. “The Newark area needs additional capacity,” he said.
The company has to show that it has the financial backing to complete the project, and had until April 25 to close on its agreement with DEDO but did not meet the deadline and so applied for an extension, Levin said.
DEDO declined the extension request but said it has now asked the company to provide evidence within a month that it has met zoning requirements and has reached agreement on a power purchase agreement with the Newark utility, Levin said.
He rejected opponents’ claims that the power plant project will damage the surrounding environment, arguing that it will be much cleaner than the old Chrysler plant.
He also defended the state’s support of the project despite the Fisker bankruptcy and the uncertain job-creation record of Bloom Energy.
He said it remains to be seen whether Bloom Energy meets its job-creation goals.
“We will see how all that turns out,” he said. “If they don’t fulfill their obligations, we can claw back the money.”
Following the Board of Adjustment’s approval, the project must now obtain air-quality permits from DNREC. The company has filed its application but it is incomplete because, as of May 1, DNREC had not received the result of the zoning appeal, said Michael Globetti, a spokesman for the department.
But he said DNREC’s Division of Air Quality is reviewing the application and is preparing a draft permit that will be subject to public notice in coming months.
Meanwhile, the University of Delaware is continuing to evaluate the impact of the Data Center project on the STAR campus and the surrounding community, and will report by early June, said University spokeswoman Andrea Boyle. She said the university will have no comment on the plans until then.
But Willett Kempton, research director at UD’s Center for Carbon Free Power Integration, questioned why TDC wants to build a power plant that would produce five times the electrical energy used by the City of Newark, and said most data centers run off the grid.
In a 22-page analysis revised on April 30, Kempton argued that electricity from the plant would emit more carbon than if it was generated by the existing grid, and would make UD the highest carbon emitter among five colleges surveyed.
If TDC tries to sell power to the grid, it will be uncompetitive because there is a surplus of generating capacity in northern Delaware, and prices are low. Kempton added. He speculated that the plan is really motivated by a desire to build more natural gas pipelines.
“It is dif?cult to escape the conclusion that the power plant is planned either out of
ignorance and incorrect analysis, or it has a purpose not being revealed to the public nor to public agencies,” Kempton wrote. “The power design decisions to date do not bene?t the University, the City, the residents of the area, nor even TDC’s data business.”