Lehigh Valley is moving from scattered small data centers to true hyperscale, with two proposals totaling over 7.7 million square feet plus a 100 MW expansion at Tek Park.
The region is attractive for AI infrastructure because it has strong transmission, available land, and proximity to East Coast population centers and networks.
Planners flag a critical gap: developers are not yet disclosing full power and water requirements, so grid impact, cooling design, and long-term utility costs are still unknown.
Pennsylvania regulators are drafting rules for how big loads like AI data centers interconnect and share grid upgrade costs, while federal regulators just made it easier to tie large data centers directly to power plants.
Water is a major friction point, with typical facilities using the equivalent of thousands of households and pressure to shift toward wastewater-based cooling instead of potable supplies.
Local townships are racing to write zoning rules while projects are already in motion, which means early sites may set precedents on noise, resilience, and grid and water stress.
The article is a useful look at how second-tier metros are becoming AI power and water battlegrounds long before most residents see any upside.
