City HallSaturday, November 7
Mayor McLean asks the City Council to pause mega data centers in Boise
The Daily Boise team
If you've watched data center proposals circle the Treasure Valley, Boise's mayor wants a pause inside city limits. Mayor Lauren McLean says she's "pulling the emergency brake" and is asking the City Council to pass a six-month moratorium at its Tuesday meeting. If it passes after a public hearing, it takes effect immediately.
The proposed BLM data center would be far bigger than Meta's
Floor area of the proposed data center, beside places you know
69 football fields would fit inside the proposed data center
Sources: Boise Dev, Idaho Statesman
View as table
| Floor area | |
|---|---|
| The proposed data center | 4,000,000 sq. ft. (Ada/Elmore county line) |
| Meta's data center | 750,000 sq. ft. |
| ValorC3's Emerald St. center | 38,000 sq. ft. |
| A football field | 57,600 sq. ft. (end zones included) |
The emergency ordinance would add definitions for data centers and temporarily ban new ones over 100,000 square feet or 20 megawatts of power. The city has no applications that fit right now, and the ValorC3 expansion on Emerald St. would be unaffected because it was permitted before the proposal.
- Council hearing and vote: Tue., Nov. 10
- Length: six months, while the city drafts permanent rules
- ValorC3 today: 38,000 sq. ft., plus a 31,000 expansion
Micron is a different story. The city has been vocal in supporting its Boise expansion, and a filing with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission shows its power needs growing from 20 MW this year to 495 MW by 2030. That's 465 MW of added demand, more than 23 times the city's cap on new data center power draw.
Micron's added power demand is far above the 20 MW data center cap
Source: Boise Dev
View as table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| City's cap on new centers | 20 MW |
| ValorC3's two Emerald St. centers | 12 MW |
| Micron's added demand by 2030 | 465 MW |
Sources: Boise Dev, Idaho Statesman, KIVI-TV