Responsible Development
Responsible Development
- Air quality and emissions
- Water use and sourcing
- Energy consumption and efficiency
- Land disturbance and habitat impacts
- Noise
- Dust and public health considerations, including Valley Fever
Resource Management
Water Use
We understand that water is an important issue in Kern County, and minimizing water use has been a key consideration in the design of this project.
Most data centers use water to help cool equipment. Golden Valley is being designed with a closed-loop cooling system that uses significantly less water than traditional cooling methods.
The system requires an initial fill of approximately 600,000 gallons, which is roughly equivalent to 30 residential swimming pools. After that, annual water use for the cooling system is expected to be approximately 6,000 gallons per year, or less than one-third of a residential swimming pool. By comparison, a similarly sized data center using traditional evaporative cooling could consume millions of gallons of water each day.
Additional water would be required for daily domestic and sanitary purposes for the offices and employees, estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 gallons per day within the range of a typical warehouse or office building. Infrequent water consumption may be required by local regulations for the testing of fire suppression equipment.
Energy Use
The 275MW Golden Valley project is designed to be powered primarily by CRC’s existing Elk Hills Power Plant, which is owned and operated by CRC and has long supplied power for operations at the Elk Hills Oil Field. This direct connection between the existing, on-site power plant and the data center allows the project to meet its energy needs without placing additional demand on the local residential power grid.
Because the project is powered primarily by CRC’s existing facilities, any improvements needed to support the project will be made within CRC’s existing facilities and paid for entirely by the Golden Valley project developers. The project will not require upgrades to the public power system, which will not result in increased utility rates.
The project will use existing utility grid connections only as a backup power source during planned maintenance or other periods when the Elk Hills Power Plant is unavailable. Transmission studies are underway to confirm that the grid can provide this backup power without affecting electric service for existing customers. If any upgrades are needed to ensure reliable electric service for existing customers, those costs will be paid for entirely by the project and will not be passed on to local residents, businesses, or utility customers.
Community Protection & Safeguards
The Golden Valley project is designed with access to both the Elk Hills Power Plant as the primary power source and existing utility grid connections as the secondary power source. As a tertiary backup, Golden Valley expects to have fifteen 2.5 MW diesel generators, which would only be used in the unlikely event that both the primary power source and utility backup were simultaneously unavailable — a scenario expected to occur less than 0.1% of the time. This design significantly limits generator runtime and associated emissions.
Air quality is an important consideration for this project and will be evaluated as part of the environmental review process. All backup generators would be subject to California's strict air quality regulations, permitting requirements, and emissions limits.
The data center is expected to generate noise similar to a medium-sized office building. This project would be located at an existing industrial site approximately 1.5 miles away from the nearest neighborhood.
- Sound barriers and enclosures
- Equipment selection and placement
- Acoustic modelling during design
We also comply with local noise regulations and add additional mitigations (e.g., sound barriers) where needed. Considering the location of this project, away from residential neighborhoods and located at an existing industrial site, we do not expect noise to be an issue for the surrounding community.