Developer pulls Goodyear-area data center application amid opposition

Developers withdrew an application from Maricopa County’s planning and development queue after concerned residents and other stakeholders expressed apprehension over a proposed 529-acre data center campus bordering Goodyear and Buckeye.

The campus was slated to service high-demand AI in unincorporated county territory. Buckeye and Goodyear, who bordered and publicly opposed the project, would have had no veto in the decision to develop it.

The developers were originally optimistic about the potential of the data center, foreseeing significant economic benefits for the county.

“The economic benefit to this region of Maricopa County that would be realized from a data center technology park would be substantial,” states the narrative. “For both the Northwest and the South campuses, Tract’s preliminary estimates show that Maricopa County could realize approximately $81 million per year in both real and personal property taxes generated and approximately $1.6 billion over a 20-year period.”

The county said in March multiple stakeholders opposed the project.

“There is opposition from both the City of Buckeye and the City of Goodyear,” a Maricopa County rep stated. “APS (Arizona Public Service) may not have sufficient power for the proposed facility, but that has not been confirmed. At this time, Planning and Development are not supportive of this proposal.”

The county Tuesday confirmed the application was pulled but offered no heightened information.

“We can confirm the applicant has withdrawn their requests,” a rep said. “We do not have any further comment.”

Maricopa County’s top communication director, Fields Moseley, was added to the e-mail inquiry and courtesy copied in the response. According to the county site, the director oversees the team that works with the Board of Supervisors and County Management.

Recently, Arizona Public Service Co., the state's largest utility, told the Goodyear Independent that it was working to meet energy demands like the proposed application.

“While we are well prepared to manage Arizona’s existing above-average growth, like many other communities and utilities around the country, we are working to meet the extremely large resource needs of the data center sector,” said APS media rep Ann Porter.

According to the International Energy Agency, 2,700 data centers consumed more than 4% of the country’s total electricity in 2022. The agency projects this will reach 6% by 2026.

Analysts believe an overburden and the high-speed growth of data centers in the valley could be a pervasive tax on consumers.

“The operational demands of large data centers can consume a great deal of power, which often leads to higher loads on local power grids,” said Matt Majoli, founder and CEO of Alliance Optix, an IT consultancy specializing in data center operations.”This, in turn, often requires utility providers to upgrade or expand their capabilities. These changes could potentially increase energy costs; however, the increases are generally absorbed over wide customer bases and are frequently offset by efficiency gains and long-term infrastructural improvements.”

Data centers also draw on water for cooling. According to a recent The Atlantic article, Microsoft’s data center in Goodyear draws upwards of 56 million gallons of water a year.

According to APS estimates, a large data center’s energy demand could be as high as 1,000 MW, or a fourth of the energy output from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.