Upper Burrell data center to be live by end of year

The TECfusions data center in Upper Burrell will be live by the end of this year, according to founder Simon Tusha.

Part of the 1,395-acre site, located at the former Alcoa Research Center, already has been built out to accommodate some tenants, Tusha said.

The Florida-based company is working through 10 contracts it has received and plans to have operations live before 2026, he said.

“We’re already ready to go,” Tusha said.

Similar to people renting space in an apartment building, data centers are large facilities that house computing equipment, such as servers and networking devices, to store data and information for companies and organizations.

It’s part of an ambitious plan that, when fully built out, could hold up to 3 gigawatts of power. Three gigawatts is about three times more than the Three Mile Island power plant near Harrisburg could generate.

Those potential tenants’ contracts needed anywhere between 10 megawatts and 100 megawatts, but Tusha did not disclose who those potential tenants are.

Company developers previously said that, when complete, the Upper Burrell facility has the potential to hold a digital cloud like Meta or other household names.

TECfusions plans to use natural gas already available at the site to power the center, Tusha said. He said there wouldn’t be any effect to the energy grid and prices because the center will generate its own power through natural gas wells on site.

“We don’t want to be parasitic to the community,” he said. “We want to push it back to the grid, if they need it in the community.”

Unlike the proposed data center in Springdale, there hasn’t been much in the way of resistance at the Upper Burrell site. Local and state lawmakers have previously signaled support for the project and project an economic boon to the community. The Upper Burrell site also sits in a rural location, unlike the Springdale location, which is in a riverfront community.

“TECFusions data center being slated to be operational in the near future is an exciting development for our region,” said Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana. “The facility will play an important role in helping to increase economic and community development in Upper Burrell and the surrounding area. As technology advances at a rapid rate, state of the art data centers, like TECFusions, will have a critical place.”

TECfusions will not use water to cool down its computers, Tusha said, so there will not be an impact to local water supply. Spokeswoman Melissa Farney said cool down methods depend on the build-out specifications of a tenant.

Previous deployments have included cool down methods of air cooling; fan walls; and direct liquid-to-chip, a server cooling method that uses cold plates to circulate liquid coolant across computers.

“It’s an older concern,” Farney said of water usage. “Water is less and less used. It’s not so much water usage anymore.”

Once operational, nearby property owners will not hear anything from the data center, Tusha said.

He was unable to say how much tax revenue the project would bring to the community but said initially, the center would include about 40 full-time employees.

Once up to 3 gigawatts — in about two decades — the center would have thousands of mechanical and electrical jobs to last over 20 to 30 years, Tusha said.

“For the community, it’s going to be huge,” he said. “The net benefits are going to be good.”

TECfusions also operates data centers in Clarksville, Va., and Tucson, Ariz.

Farney said TECfusions is also working through state guidelines to use its $2 million grant from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

Tusha said the company is still deciding what project it wants to pursue with that money.