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A closer look at the proposed
Latham data center
[January 08, 2026]
On Monday, December 5th, the Zoning
and Economic Development Committee of the larger Logan County Board
met for their monthly meeting. To read LDN’s general overview of
that meeting click
here. What follows is a closer look at data
centers to help shed light on the exact specifics of the proposed
Latham data center discussed at length in the meeting.
What exactly is a data center? In the meeting, Hut 8 representatives
Peter Goehausen and Greg Irwin used photos on cell phones and
streaming to help explain data centers. According to them, data
centers allow for streaming of content from companies such as
Netflix or saving photos on cloud storage. According to Goehausen,
data centers “largely are the backbone of most of modern life.” He
went on to explain that these data centers allow for the continued
living of our modern lifestyles.
These data centers require certain things to operate, such as water
for cooling and a large amount of electricity. While some data
centers can use millions of gallons of water per day, according to
the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the proposed Latham
data center would be a “closed loop system.” This means that once
the water was in their system, they would continue to cycle that
same water to cool their machinery for, according to Goehausen and
Irwin, five to seven years. They stated this water would be trucked
in from the outside but that it is too early in the process to know
where from.
Maybe one of the biggest concerns is the amount of power needed to
operate a data center. The proposed Latham data center would be 500
MW (megawatts). What does this mean? To understand this, one must
understand the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt hour.
A megawatt is a substantial amount
of power, equal to one million watts. According to BKV Energy, a
standard microwave ranges anywhere between 600 and 1,200 watts. This
means that, at the high end, a megawatt would be equivalent to a
little over 833 microwaves.
A megawatt hour is similar but has to do with an amount of time that
item has been running. According to the website RatedPower, “a
megawatt hour represents how much electricity [a] system delivers
over a period of one hour.” This means that a one-megawatt system
should use about one megawatt of power per hour. This same website
states that one megawatt would be enough to keep two refrigerators
and two 60-watt lightbulbs running for a year. Scaling this up by
500 times each hour is a not insignificant power draw.
One thing to note is that data centers usually do not run at full
capacity around the clock. While they do run around the clock, there
will be times when more electricity is drawn by the center than
others. The proposed data center can draw up to 500 megawatts but
that does not mean it will at all times.
Many people assume that this data center would lead to an increase
in their electricity bills, and the issue was raised repeatedly at
the meeting. According to Goehausen and Irwin, it will not. They
provided two reasons. The first being Hut 8 is planning on paying
for the full cost of any infrastructure upgrades that Ameren needs
to make to local power grids and lines to get them the amount of
power they need. Ameren Illinois charges a fee for infrastructure to
their customers. Should Ameren have to foot the bill for these
improvements, they would very likely pass that cost on to locals.
According to the Hut 8 representatives, this should not happen if
they cover the cost themselves.
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The second reason was due to
the fact that they were going to be purchasing their power from
MISO (the Midcontinent Independent System Operation). Ameren
would only be getting the power to the data center. Goehausen
and Irwin did state that they could not predict market rates of
electricity, and that those could go up or down, as Hut 8 is not
in control of that.
According to the Pew Research Center, the primary reason that
energy costs for local customers around data centers rise has to
do with the infrastructure upgrades that companies such as
Ameren must make. Seeing as Goehausen and Irwin stated Hut 8
would be paying for these upgrades, the research seems to
indicate that they are correct in their statement that costs
should not go up for locals.
What could raise prices, however, is the high demand for power
that data centers have. According to a study conducted by
Carnegie Mellon University, electricity costs could rise by
eight percent in the coming years, with some areas increasing by
as much as 25 percent. This study directly cited the recent boom
in data centers as the reason for this possible increase in
rates.
According to Goehausen and Irwin, there are some potential
economic development opportunities to Logan County should the
data center be built. First, they are expecting to create
approximately 1,500 construction jobs over the course of 18
months. Several people asked about this, wanting assurances that
the labor would be coming from Logan County and not other
counties or cities surrounding it. While the pair were
interested in providing this to the community, they could not
give any specifics on how this would happen during this meeting.
They are also expecting to create about 200 full-time positions
across three shifts, with it being stated that the average
number of employees per shift would be about sixty. In addition,
Hut 8 is working on partnering with Heartland Community College
Lincoln to get a program in place to help train local residents
to get a job at this data center. Their estimated hourly pay
rates were also very high, with the construction jobs being
listed at $80 per hour and the full-time employees at $60 per
hour.
The community had many questions regarding this data center,
with Goehausen and Irwin answering each of them. The general
consensus seemed to be a resounding ‘no’ to the creation of this
project. Stay tuned to LDN for a breakdown of the community
questions and answers from this meeting that will be published
later this week.
[Matt Boutcher]
Sources:
EESI Data Centers and Water Consumption
How Much Power Does a Microwave Use?
What is the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt hour?
What we know about energy use at U.S. data centers amid the AI boom
Data Center Growth Could Increase Electricity Bills 8% Nationally
and as Much as 25% in Some Regional Markets |
