The City of Cannon Falls is in the midst of an AUAR. OK, I’ll bite, what’s an AUAR?

Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) Process

There’s also some general Data Center background info down below in this post.

The Cannon Falls AUAR is for an area where there’s a data center proposed, bounded by that red line. Off to the right, see that substation? To the east/right of that is the Cannon Falls Energy Center, a natural gas electrical generating plant.

Cannon Falls has been marketing this for quire some time — this link is from 2018:

Cannon Falls Industrial Park West Data Center Site (Cannon Falls, MN)

Here’s the City of Cannon Falls page:

Cannon Falls Technology Park

Anticipated schedule? Mark your calendars for the “spring 2025” Comment Period for the DRAFT AUAR. From an article in the Cannon Falls Beacon about a joint work session of the Cannon Falls City Council and the Planning Commission:

I have some questions, so I fired off a missive to the City Administrator and the “info” email which goes to the project developer. City Administrator said he “won’t be able to answer my questions, however I appreciate your inquiry,” and forwarded it to the developers.

Here are my questions, well, a start:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

CANNON FALLS COUNCIL CHAMBERS

APRIL 29 — THE TIME???

And on that note… an AUAR?? It’s deja vu all over again!

Here’s a Final AUAR for a Data Center near Hampton, at the intersection of Hwys 50 & 52, just released:

HAMPTON ORDER AND SCOPING DOCUMENT November 26, 2024

HAMPTON DRAFT AUAR December 12, 2024

HAMPTON FINAL AUAR March 2025

A while back, two years ago, the City of Northfield completed an AUAR (nominal “environmental review”) for an area where “industrial development” was proposed — unofficially a data center was in the works:

• Xcel/Northfield AUAR! Old news, but… January 25, 2025
• REMINDER: Xcel/Northfield AUAR Comments due TOMORROW! August 16, 2023
• Xcel/Northfield Draft AUAR released! July 20, 2023

BACKGROUND INFO:

There are so many reports that Data Centers are HUGE energy users, but there’s not much about specifics!

2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report

How to meet the demand? From the DOE’s press release on that report, key strategies for meeting data center energy demand include: 

• Enabling data center flexibility through onsite power generation and storage solutions, including the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office’s Onsite Energy Program and new Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize, so data centers can be a grid asset rather than a burden.  
• Leveraging energy community opportunities to re-use infrastructure at retired coal facilities for data centers and associated power infrastructure.   
• Engaging with stakeholders on innovative rate structures to support data center expansion while maintaining affordability. Commercializing key enabling technologies such as next-generation geothermal, advanced nuclear, long-duration storage, and efficient semiconductor technologies.  

That first one should be a no-brainer.

That second one is also a no-brainer — distributed generation, and put your energy near the load, in conjunction with the first bullet point.

That third one, “support data center expansion while maintaining affordability” sounds like lowering rates for high consumption? Why reward it? That’s backwards.

How much power are we talking about to keep these Data Centers humming?

How Much Energy Do Data Centers Really Use?

Now we’re getting to useful numbers. But we need Cannon Falls project specific numbers. It’s all about the megawatts.

AI says “Data centers typically use between 5 to 10 megawatts (MW) of power on average. However, larger hyperscale data centers can require 100 MW or more, depending on their size, the number of servers, and the cooling systems in place. The power consumption can vary significantly based on the design and operational efficiency of the data center.” It’s on the internet, it must be true! 5-10 MW isn’t that much, essentally the same as a pipeline pumping station, i.e., the CO2 pipelines that require a pumping station every 75 miles (lots of parasitic load).

Noise? Minnesota does have industrial noise standards. Minn. R. 7030.0040:

And apparently noise is a problem at Data Centers. Ask the Goulds — bearing in mind that crypto data mining is not a data center, but equipment is much the same, though in this case, less of it.

Bit 49 crypto-currency in the news October 1st, 2022

There doesn’t seem to be any question that noise is an issue with Data Centers. Here are some specifics:

Why Data Centers Are Loud, and How to Quiet Them Down

Acoustics, Noise, and Vibration Implications in Data Centers

The industry acknowledges that noise is an issue, yet here’s an example where nearby residents struggle to address the noise:

Residents turn up the volume on data center noise complaints:

Manassas neighborhood battles noise from data centers

In this neighborhood, the AVERAGE noise levels as measured by Amazon, were within noise levels permitted in that jurisdiction, but would be over Minnesota’s nighttime noise standard:

Projections by one resident, based on noise levels at a similar project nearby showed noise levels were too high:

The Cannon Falls AUAR scoping document has missed a crucial area — the absence of noise estimates, noise modeling, or any requirement of noise modeling prior to permitting and construction, and testing after construction during typical operation, is problematic.