The Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for a proposed conceptual plan for a proposed 180,000-square-foot technology center in the MOT Park subdivision along Auto Park Drive.
WDEL reported the project could include a 40 megawatt natural gas fired power plant as well as banks of servers that could store data and IT infrastructure. The price tag is estimated at $300 million.
The project was first unveiled in April at a Town Council meeting.
Data centers have been moving to non-diesel back-up power sources like include wind, solar and Bloom Energy fuel cells, which are manufactured in Newark.
The project appears to be a small scale version of the Data Centers project. The controversial development at the University of Delaware STAR campus, saw its lease terminated by UD after heated opposition. The STAR campus is the former Chrysler Assembly Plant.
Lawsuits have been filed regarding the termination of the lease and unpaid bills for the Newark project, which carried a $1 billion-plus price tag.
So far, opponents of the Newark project have not been active in opposing the Middletown project. Based on social media postings, some Middletown-area residents seem to be have concerns about the power plant portion of the project.
The possible power plant would be about one-seventh the size of the proposed generation site on the STAR campus. The town does operate its own electric utility. However, any town power purchase deal would require approval from the Delaware Municipal Electric Corp.
The region is seeing major investments in natural gas-fired, with a massive base load plant under construction in neighboring Cecil County, MD. from Old Dominion, a wholesale electric cooperative serving Delaware Electric and other cooperatives.
In addition, Calpine is building a generation site in Dover. This comes as older coal-fired plants are retired and natural gas is tapped from new production in Pennsylvania.
The large tract off Route 301 had originally been marketed for use as an “auto row” for the fast growing area.
However, the loss of the town’s only new car dealership and the closing of other small town stores reduced possibilities of auto related development in that area.
Delaware’s largest auto dealer group, Hertrich, recently opened a Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep dealership in neighboring Cecil County, Md.
