A new data center will be opening in Springfield in the coming months.
This is coming at a time where commercial-scale data centers are becoming notorious for their high consumption of resources such as water and electricity.
The owner of the Springfield data center, 5C Group, says it has a game plan to run the site sustainably.
The $1.3 billion data center is at Prime Ohio corporate park, and is estimated to create 120 full-time jobs and more than $14 million in payroll.
MORE: New $1.3B Springfield data center expected to open in early 2026
The Canada-based AI infrastructure company 5C Group launched last April as a spin off of IT provider Hypertec, which it still partners with. Hypertec inherited the Springfield data center project after a company acquisition.
Now the 5C Group will be responsible for the engineering and maintenance of the 75 megawatt data center.
Commitment to 30% carbon-free energy
Since it was announced in late 2024, Springfield residents have come to city commission meetings with questions about 5C’s data center project and any potential harmful impacts on the environment.
Ohio is now home to over 200 data centers.
For the 5C Group, one of the five Cs in its name represents “climate.”
“We support a greener future for AI through innovative and environmentally conscious data center and compute AI infrastructure solutions,” it states on its website.
Data centers typically require large amounts of electricity to power and maintain high volumes of servers and hardware around the clock.
The 5C Group says it will source at least 30% of its power from wind, solar and/or nuclear power generating facilities.
It will do this using power purchase agreements with Ohio-based renewable energy developers to deliver power to the regional energy grid.
5C will be a customer of electric utility OhioEdison. Residential electricity rates won’t be affected by the project, according to 5C, nor will residents subsidize its power use.
“Like other large industrial users, 5C purchases electricity independently under standard large-user rates. It is our financial responsibility to pay for any grid upgrades required by our project,” said André Lamarre, executive vice president for Hypertec, in an email.
More efficient data center cooling
Its other focus is on reducing water usage. Data centers are typically large water users because of equipment cooling techniques. The most common practice is using water for heat exchange to cool machinery, then letting the heated water evaporate or discharge off-site.
5C applied for a water permit to use up to 300,000 gallons of water daily from Springfield’s public water system.
But on many days of the year, the facility won’t require any water, said David Bitton, vice president of AI and product strategy for the 5C Group.
“It's a very common practice in the data center world to apply for a permit for the worst case scenario on that water usage,” Bitton said.
5c’s facility will use a direct liquid cooling system.
Instead of relying on evaporation for cooling, the facility will be cooled using a recirculating fluid that will transfer heat away from the IT components.
Bitton described the worst case scenario as a day over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, with equipment at maximum capacity, and in the event the facility’s generators fail.
Though, the facility will start to draw on water resources if the temperature outdoors is higher than 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Even so, “we may use – to the max – around 10% of that 300,000 gallons,” Bitton said.
Bitton said they’ll try to reduce water use over time as new technology becomes more efficient; they're also exploring the possibility of constructing a reservoir on site “so we don't have to tap into the local water system,” he said.
5C is also leasing the space out to cloud platform provider Vultr to house and operate their equipment.
