Natelli Investments LLC is proposing the 250-megawatt facility, called the ‘New Hill Digital Campus,’ be built on a 190-acre property on Shearon Harris Road in New Hill.
After filing plans with the town of Apex for a proposed data storage facility on Shearon Harris Road, Michael Natelli of Natelli Investments LLC is speaking for the first time about those plans and responding to concerns about the proposal.
The company is proposing the 250-megawatt facility, called the ‘New Hill Digital Campus’, be built on a 190-acre property on Shearon Harris Road in New Hill. The site is not far from Duke Energy’s Harris Nuclear Plant and a water treatment plant, the Western Wake Regional Reclamation Facility.
WRAL News spoke with people living near the site in the Jordan Pointe neighborhood shortly after plans for the proposal were first made public. They met to voice their concerns and come up with a strategy to ensure the proposal is not approved by the Town of Apex.
“When they make infrastructure improvements, who does that cost go to? It doesn’t go to the developer,” said Lorraine McAvoy, a New Hill resident. “It goes to the people, the consumers of the utility.”
Someone else questioned other potential impacts.
“I’ve been debating which room in our house is best for our nursery, and now, it’s like no room, because of light and noise pollution,” said Michelle Hoffner O’Connor, a Jordan Pointe resident.
In addition to concerns about increased energy costs, and light and noise pollution, neighbors shared worries about a potential strain on energy and water sources, air pollution from generators, increased traffic, and negative health effects.
On Thursday, WRAL News asked Natelli about his vision for the New Hill Digital Campus.
“We’re somebody who really wants to do this the right way,” Natelli said.
But those living around the site tell WRAL News there is nothing ‘right’ about the current plans.
Natelli showed WRAL News a conceptual design of the campus. It includes four, 70-feet-tall data storage buildings. Natelli says his team requested 300 megawatts of electricity from Duke Energy.
“There’s a process we have to go through with Duke Energy to figure out if they can serve the power, how they can do it, and what it’s going to take,” Natelli said. “The cost to run this power to power to the site, build this substation, any upgrades required, we need to fit the bill for that.”
The increase in data centers and proposals to build them across the state has raised questions about who ultimately pays the soaring electricity costs needed to support them.
The passage of the Power Bill Reduction Act has only inflated those concerns.
When asked about this, Natelli said, “There is a lot of activity happening in North Carolina around data centers, and that’s something that the Utilities Commission and Duke Energy will have to grapple with in how we move forward, and plan for it, and figure out how to charge rates appropriately across all customer classes.”
When it comes to Apex utility customers, Natelli insisted his project would not impact rates.
“We’re not touching the Apex distribution network or causing anything that would change what Apex is charging residents,” Natelli said. “Our utility bill would flow directly through Duke Energy.”
According to Natelli, the proposed facility would use up to one million gallons of water per day for cooling purposes. He said the source will be reclaimed water from the Western Wake Regional Reclamation Facility.
“We’ve had discussions with the town of Apex and Cary about running this reclaimed water system from that plant to our site to use for cooling,” Natelli said. “By using reclaimed water, you’re not touching the potable water system. You’re taking reclaimed water that’s already been treated, running it through your cooling processes and sending it back to the sewer. It’s a very limited impact on the water system.”
Of the concerns WRAL News asked Natelli about, he said sound pollution continues to be the one he hears most. He says his team hired a sound consultant to ensure any sound coming from the property is at a level that is acceptable to the town of Apex.
“We’re going to have a lot of different methods that we can attenuate for it if we need to in order to ensure that it is not disrupting the neighbors,” Natelli said.
When asked if he would be comfortable living near the proposed site, Natelli said, “For a community that’s a mile away, there’s a ton of existing vegetation between our property and US 1, and all of the design criteria that we’re going to implement, the attenuation measures that we’re gonna provide for the sound – I wouldn’t have any issue with this.”
WRAL News reached out to the town of Apex to learn the town leaders' thoughts on the plans, the approval process and neighbors’ concerns. The town has not responded.