Northwest Indiana is soon to become the largest private sector investment in state history thanks to Amazon Web Services(AWS) building a $15 billion data center, or data centers in the near future.
The cloud computing arm of Amazon-AWS- is working on an $11 billion data center campus in St. Joseph County, near the LaPorte County line. Now the company is planning to add another 2.4 gigawatts of data center capacity somewhere in Northwest Indiana, potentially across multiple sites.
AWS also operates a smaller facility at AmeriPlex at the Port in Portage, while Amazon itself runs two major distribution centers across Interstate 65 from each other in Merrillville, where it moves products nationally through a 1-million-square-foot warehouse that’s believed to be the largest individual building ever constructed in Lake County.
Indiana Governor Mike Braun said in a press release, “This project will create more than a thousand jobs while supporting thousands more across the region, further strengthening Indiana’s position in energy dominance and economic leadership.”
To power the new development in Northwest Indiana, AWS will contract with GenCo, a subsidiary of Merrillville-based NIPSCO. Amazon and NIPSCO leaders said the new electric capacity will be built without passing costs onto existing NIPSCO customers; NIPSCO is looking to add 3 GW of additional electric generation capacity to serve the project.
Brandon Oyer, head of energy and water for the Americas for AWS said, “The additional generation helps to enhance grid reliability for the region, while also adding greater assurance that the grid remains reliable during periods of peak stress, such as hot summer days and cold winter nights.
AWS is evaluating potential sites across Northwest Indiana for one or more new data center campuses.
Oyer went on to say, “For the communities in Northern Indiana, it’s an opportunity to benefit from major economic development and skills enabled by Amazon’s investment.”
The project will require more electric capacity than NIPSCO currently has available. NIPSCO President and Chief Operating Officer Vince Parisi said the utility expects the buildout will create 2,000 construction jobs.
While economic development and city officials have touted data centers as major investments that will diversify the Region’s economy and accelerate the tech sector, the projects have met opposition from residents in many Northwest Indiana communities who have raised concerns about water and electric use, as well as noise, light property values and a lack of studies on the long-term health impacts. Valparaiso, Chesterton, Burns Harbor and other Northwest Indiana communities have rejected data center projects.
“No data center” signs have appeared in communities like Hobart and Michigan City, where data center projects are planned.
Amazon has invested $31.3 billion in Indiana since 2010.
