A panel covering the potential development of data centers in Maine was held in South Portland on Thursday night. It comes after Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill last month that would have banned the construction of new data centers in Maine.”We have people who are experts in energy, work in government, work for environmental nonprofits, and even want to develop projects,” said Orion Breen, with E2 Tech, and the panel facilitator. Developers for projects in Sanford and Jay said their projects would not put a strain on Maine’s electrical grid or necessitate adding infrastructure, but would either help generate electricity and possibly lower rates.”What we find attractive about doing this here is unlike the problems that we’ve read about and seen in other parts of the country, we’re just plugging into the power that’s there. We’re not expanding the grid. We’re not requiring upgrades to the grid,” said a developer for the Jay project.Others were concerned about the water used for cooling in data centers. Environmentalists were worried about forever chemicals like PFAS potentially contaminating waterways.”We need to make sure that the chemicals that they’re using in these facilities are regulated, that we have discharge limits for a lot of these things,” said a panelist.Maine has also established a data center advisory council that the governor’s office said will make recommendations on development in the state.
A panel covering the potential development of data centers in Maine was held in South Portland on Thursday night. It comes after Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill last month that would have banned the construction of new data centers in Maine.
“We have people who are experts in energy, work in government, work for environmental nonprofits, and even want to develop projects,” said Orion Breen, with E2 Tech, and the panel facilitator.
Developers for projects in Sanford and Jay said their projects would not put a strain on Maine’s electrical grid or necessitate adding infrastructure, but would either help generate electricity and possibly lower rates.
“What we find attractive about doing this here is unlike the problems that we’ve read about and seen in other parts of the country, we’re just plugging into the power that’s there. We’re not expanding the grid. We’re not requiring upgrades to the grid,” said a developer for the Jay project.
Others were concerned about the water used for cooling in data centers. Environmentalists were worried about forever chemicals like PFAS potentially contaminating waterways.
“We need to make sure that the chemicals that they’re using in these facilities are regulated, that we have discharge limits for a lot of these things,” said a panelist.
Maine has also established a data center advisory council that the governor’s office said will make recommendations on development in the state.