BY HALEY MCLEOD
For context
Diving deeper
Roughly 1 megawatt of energy
Looking ahead
Data centers typically impose minimal strain on the infrastructure of local communities, except for their water and power needs, Madison said. While construction of these buildings may increase noise and traffic, Noonan also noted that once online, data centers are a quiet neighbor. The deregulation of the energy market outside Austin’s city limits is an attractive draw for data centers, said Jordan Robinson, president and CEO of the Round Rock Chamber. Their buildings require substantial power, and the ability to explore different providers becomes crucial for these companies. “Companies that are requiring large amounts of power can actually shop around and pick the utility provider that can offer them the best rates,” Robinson said. Oncor, the local energy delivery company, said in a statement to Community Impact , “We collaborate with all our customers to grasp their load demand needs and ensure our facilities can meet them. Additionally, we assess growth needs in our communities and incorporate them into our long-term infrastructure planning.” These types of facilities often use a considerable amount of water for cooling—a resource in short supply in Central Texas due to drought. However, the local emerging data companies are taking steps to reduce water consumption. Round Rock officials are also in talks with Switch regarding water reuse options. Skybox and Sabey operations in the area utilize air chillers, which require very little water. “Water availability is not a unique problem to Central Texas,” Skybox Chief Development Officer Haynes Strader said. “We care a lot about thinking about the impact our facilities are going to have on those communities.”
Sabey in Round Rock is scheduled to become the first data center to go online in March. Estimates for Switch in Round Rock and Skybox in Pflugerville to begin operations range from late 2024 into 2025. The city of Round Rock already shows signs of sustained interest from the data center industry, as Round Rock City Council recently approved Amazon’s planned-use development application, which includes provisions for a data center development near Round Rock West. However, the company has not disclosed any official plans for establishing a data center. “As technology continues to grow and with more technology that is being stored in the cloud, the more data centers are going to have to exist,” Robinson said. “With artificial intelligence ... there has to be a place to store all of this data.”
The energy to power 200 homes in the heat of Texas summers
Facility space in square feet
Data center
Power capacity
185 megawatts or 37,000 homes
Switch , Round Rock
2 million
84 megawatts or 16,800 homes
Sabey , Round Rock
430,000
30 megawatts or 6,000 homes
Skybox , Pflugerville
140,000
600 megawatts or 120,000 homes
Skybox , Hutto
4 million
SOURCE: CITY OF ROUND ROCK, SABEY, SKYBOX/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Sabey, Round Rock First building operational March 2024 Switch, Round Rock Construction completion expected in 2024 Skybox, Pflugerville First building operational end of 2024 Skybox, Hutto First building operational 2025
“So by being deregulated, there’s a lot of flexibility—the ability to negotiate rates and ultimately provide companies, like data centers that have large power requirements, to make a decision that’s most cost-effective for their business.” JORDAN ROBINSON, ROUND ROCK CHAMBER PRESIDENT
SOURCE: SWITCH, SABEY DATA CENTERS, SKYBOX DATACENTERS/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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PFLUGERVILLE - HUTTO EDITION
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