Pennsylvania Data Center Intel

Recent Pennsylvania data center news

• Dec 17, 2025

  Springdale data center gets green light

  The Springdale borough council granted a conditional use permit to Allegheny DC Property Company to build a data center at the former Cheswick Generating Station site.

  • Permit and project details: The council voted 5-2 on Dec. 16, 2025 to approve a conditional use permit for Allegheny DC Property Company to build a 565,000-square-foot data center (about seven stories tall) at the former Cheswick Generating Station; the developer’s materials say the facility could demand as much power at one time as more than 140,000 homes and includes rooftop cooling equipment.
  • Background, conditions and local concerns: The approval followed public opposition citing noise, health risk concerns, and doubts about promised property tax revenue; council cited sound modeling showing noise below the borough limit of 85 decibels and read a prepared statement from Borough Manager Terry Carcella that Pennsylvania law requires approval if the applicant meets zoning criteria; several council members said they voted yes to avoid expected lawsuits if the permit were denied.
• Dec 17, 2025

  Enterprises to prioritize infrastructure modernization in 2026

  World Wide Technologies (WWT) published research reporting that AI-powered applications are driving enterprises to modernize IT and consider private cloud and on-premises AI infrastructure.

  • Main announcement/action: WWT recommends enterprises prioritize IT modernization (visibility of assets, addressing technical debt, application modernization) and consider private AI / private cloud and specialized on-premises AI/HPC deployments; it cites IDC forecasting 75% of enterprise AI workloads will run on fit-for-purpose hybrid infrastructure by 2028 and Grand View Research projecting the global AI infrastructure market to reach $223.45 billion by 2030.
  • Background and implementation details: WWT highlights concrete infrastructure requirements including power and cooling upgrades (direct-to-chip liquid cooling, immersion cooling, rear-door heat exchangers), edge compute and high-speed networks, and stricter access control/identity policies for AI agents; the report and commentary from WWT CTO Neil Anderson emphasize vendor partnerships (example: Nvidia on liquid cooling) and the need for environmental sensors and integrated vendor support.
• Dec 16, 2025

  Virginia regulators weigh expanded use of data centers’ polluting generators

  The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued guidance expanding the definition of an “emergency” to potentially allow data centers to run Tier II diesel backup generators during certain planned utility outages.

  • Main action: DEQ’s Sept. 30 memo from Mike Dowd to Director Michael Rolband would treat some planned outages (notice provided within 14 days or less) as “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable” events, allowing use of Tier II diesel generators that are currently limited to emergencies; the guidance is under public review with environmental groups requesting a 30-day extension to comment and the change would still be under review when Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger takes office in January.
  • Background & details: The article cites about 9,000 generators in Virginia (≈8,000 Tier II, about 4,700 in Loudoun County); a legislative report estimated a worst-case 9,000 tons of nitrogen oxides from backup generators in the region. Drivers include over 100 planned transmission upgrades and federal initiatives (DOE’s Speed to Power Initiative cites 17.6 GW of planned data center capacity across five Virginia counties). DEQ said interested parties requested the guidance and that sources must still meet permitted emission limits.
• Dec 16, 2025

  As Springdale council prepares to vote, residents worry how data center could impact life in town

  Allegheny DC Property Company plans to build a 565,000-square-foot data center on the former Cheswick Generating Station site; the Springdale Borough Council will vote on a conditional use permit at its Dec. 16 meeting.

  • Project details and timeline: The company closed the sale on Nov. 19 and the borough planning commission recommended approval; the proposed building is 565,000 square feet (about seven stories including rooftop cooling) and could demand as much power at one time as more than 140,000 homes. The permit application was filed in August and the council’s vote is scheduled for Dec. 16 (if the council does not vote before Dec. 31, the issue would restart with a newly seated council).
  • Public process, environmental and technical specifics: Allegheny DC says it will use a closed-loop cooling system and sound modeling indicates levels below the borough limit of 85 decibels, but the company has not decided on generator fuel/type; residents and experts raised concerns about noise, water use, backup generator emissions (many generators run on diesel), electric grid impacts, and rising local electricity rates. Public comments noted the council held private deliberations (described as quasi-judicial) and some residents feel the process has excluded community input.
• Dec 15, 2025

  From nuclear disaster to AI powerhouse: America’s Three Mile Island set to power the AI boom

  Three Mile Island Unit 1 is being revived and renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, backed by a major federal loan and private investment, with a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) from Microsoft to supply electricity to local AI-focused data centres.

  • Main announcement: Unit 1 of Three Mile Island (not involved in the 1979 Unit 2 accident) is being rebuilt as the Crane Clean Energy Center, expected to produce hundreds of megawatts of steady, carbon-free electricity; the project is supported by a major federal loan, private investment, and a long-term PPA with Microsoft to anchor demand.
  • Background and details: The reactor was previously shut down in 2019 due to economic pressures (cheap natural gas); Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval and upgraded modern safety systems are required for restart; the PPA secures multi-decade electricity offtake for Microsoft’s local data centre operations, while the plant’s operator (unnamed) and government stakeholders provide financing and oversight.
• Dec 13, 2025

  US Coal Plants Closing Fast Amid Renewables Surge and Regulations

  US coal-fired power plants are closing rapidly due to cheaper renewables, natural gas, and stricter regulations; closures and conversions are reshaping local economies and generation mix.

  • Main announcement/action: The article documents accelerated retirements and early shutdowns (e.g., Brayton Point Power Station closed three years early) with coal’s share of U.S. electricity at about 13% in 2025 (down from 51% two decades ago). It notes specific operational shifts such as TransAlta pivoting its last Washington coal plant to natural gas under an agreement with Puget Sound Energy, and that the nation’s newest large coal plant is offline until 2027 per IEEFA. The piece also reports 15 coal plants delayed retirements due to rising demand from data centers/AI and cites projections of coal falling to ~5% by 2030 (S&P Global) and 7% by 2035 (EIA outlook).
  • Background and details: The article references international and policy context: South Korea announced a coal phase-out by 2040, pressuring exporters like Australia; West Virginia regulators (PSC) have stated they won’t approve shutdowns to protect grid reliability. It cites job and economic figures reported in analyses tied to Project 2025 (e.g., Pennsylvania could face up to 37,700 job losses by 2030 in some scenarios), and highlights reliability concerns as AI-driven data center demand strains the grid.
• Dec 12, 2025

  Hybrid Learning and Optimization-Based Dynamic Scheduling for DL Workloads on Heterogeneous GPU Clusters

  The authors introduce RLTune, a reinforcement learning and MILP-based framework for dynamic scheduling of deep learning workloads on heterogeneous GPU clusters.

  • RLTune combines RL-driven job prioritization with MILP-based job-to-node mapping, trained on large-scale production traces from Microsoft Philly, Helios, and Alibaba, achieving up to 20% higher GPU utilization, 81% lower queueing delay, and 70% shorter job completion time (JCT) without per-job profiling.
  • The work targets modern cloud platforms hosting large-scale DL workloads, addressing challenges from GPU heterogeneity and limited application visibility, and is positioned as application-agnostic and suitable for cloud provider-scale deployment for more efficient and fair DL workload management.
• Dec 10, 2025

  Arista goes big with campus wireless tech

  Arista Networks announced architectural updates including the VESPA WLAN mobility architecture, expanded AVA AIOps capabilities, and new ruggedized industrial switches.

  • Main announcement: Arista introduced VESPA (Virtual Ethernet Segment with Proxy ARP) to enable a single, massive roaming Wi‑Fi domain supporting over 500,000 multivendor clients and 30,000 Arista access points, using data-center principles (VXLAN, EVPN) plus MAC Rewrite Offload (MRO) and zero-touch provisioning; VESPA and the ruggedized switches are expected Q1 2026.
  • Background and additional details: Arista’s Cognitive Campus/Wi‑Fi builds on cloud-managed tech acquired from Mojo Networks (2018); AVA now includes an LLM-backed insights component for multi-domain event correlation and proactive root-cause analysis, and will add agents for VESPA and the recently acquired VeloCloud SD‑WAN (purchased from Broadcom).
• Dec 10, 2025

  How Data Centers Redefined Energy and Power in 2025

  Data Center Knowledge published a top-10 roundup showing data centers shifted from passive utility customers to active energy planners in 2025.

  • Main announcement: The roundup highlights operators investing in on-site generation, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and flexible demand to serve AI compute and meet sustainability targets; it cites a projected shortfall of over 45 GW, use of natural gas today while evaluating SMRs for future baseload, and notes DeepSeek efficiency gains reducing per-task energy needs.
  • Background and concrete details: Coverage documents state-led and utility actions including Pennsylvania’s $70B state-coordinated program focused on deliverable power (grid upgrades, new generation, workforce development), PG&E’s $73B transmission spend and mapping of ~10 GW of new data center load over the next decade, and grid-connection lead times of up to seven years with SMR commercial deployment likely in the 2030s.
• Dec 10, 2025

  Springdale residents, environmental groups gather to oppose data center; more events planned

  TribLIVE’s homepage lists a roundup of local, regional and national headlines, including a story that Springdale residents and environmental groups are organizing to oppose a proposed data center and plan additional events.

  • Main announcement: TribLIVE highlights that Springdale residents and environmental groups have gathered to oppose a data center project and have more events planned to organize opposition; the story is listed in the Valley News Dispatch section with related local coverage.
  • Other concrete details on the page:Greensburg Pension Commission returned $62K to a former chief; an editorial references a $3 million moonlighting failure in Pittsburgh; a wire story notes Paramount challenging a $72 billion Netflix offer for Warner Bros; the roundup also includes a sustainability piece on holiday shopping emissions and a story on Expiring Obamacare subsidies affecting Pennie enrollment.