MARC LEVY
4 min read
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Amazon said Monday that it will spend $20 billion on two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, including one it is building alongside a nuclear power plant that has drawn federal scrutiny over an arrangement to essentially plug right into the power plant.
Kevin Miller, vice president of global data centers at Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, told The Associated Press that the company will build another data center complex just north of Philadelphia.
One data center is being built next to northeastern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna nuclear power plant, where it intends to get its power. The other will be in Fairless Hills at a logistics campus, the Keystone Trade Center, on what was once a U.S. Steel mill. Amazon said that data center will get its power through the electricity grid.
At a news conference in Berwick in the shadow of the power plant, Gov. Josh Shapiro called it the largest private sector investment in Pennsylvania's history. Monday’s announcement, he said, is “just the beginning” because his administration is working with Amazon on additional data center projects in Pennsylvania.
While critics say data centers employ relatively few people and pack little long-term job-creation punch, their advocates say they require a huge number of construction jobs to build, spend enormous sums at area vendors and generate strong tax revenues for local governments.
Shapiro touted the work that will keep construction trades members busy building Amazon's data centers, the tech jobs that will be waiting for graduates of area colleges and the millions of dollars in property taxes that will flow to schools and local governments.
“For too long, we’ve watched as talents across Pennsylvania got hollowed out and left behind,” Shapiro said at the news conference. “No more. Now is our time to rebuild those communities and invest in them. This investment in Pennsylvania starts reversing that trend.”
Pennsylvania will provide possibly tens of millions of dollars in incentives, typically a key element of data center deals as states compete for the large installations they hope will be an economic bonanza.
Shapiro's administration said it will spend $10 million to pay for training classes and facilities at schools, community colleges and union halls to meet the skills demand for the data centers.
Amazon also will qualify for Pennsylvania’s existing sales tax exemption on purchases of data center equipment, such as servers and routers, an exemption that most states offer and that is viewed as a must-have for a state to compete.
