San Jose announces 4,000-home 'net zero' community proposed for downtown using data center power

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A big announcement for the City of San Jose was made Wednesday.

A 4,000-home "net zero community" powered by data centers has been proposed for the city's downtown.

That announcement was made at PG&E's Innovation Summit in San Jose.

"A carbon neutral community where we can both serve the needs of compute power and data centers, but make them net beneficial to the new housing units that are greatly in demand," PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said at the summit.

When our data is stored in the cloud, it sits in data centers. Those data centers generate a lot of heat and, in turn, greenhouse emissions.

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Instead of the extra heat going into the atmosphere, the "net zero" community would use it to heat and provide hot water to neighboring homes and businesses.

It's something developer Westbank says would set San Jose apart from any other city in the nation.

"In terms of actually utilizing the excess heat from a data center to provide energy to the downtown community, this will be the first one," said Andrew Jacobson, Westbank's VP of US Development.

Along with a more affordable power bill, those behind the proposal say there are other benefits.

"You're creating this really vibrant downtown area that's going to be sustainable and that's really going to be able to drive, not just the economic piece of it, but do it in a manner that's sustainable long term," said Mike Medeiros, PG&E VP of South Bay delivery.

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Three data centers are planned to be part of the community bringing heat to the homes.

According to the proposal, some of the first homes would be 110 rental units in the former Bank of Italy building. If things go according to plan, more units would be brought to downtown through the year 2031.

"We've also set ambitious goals around building more housing--over 60,000 units over the next eight years--adding jobs. We want to continue to be an engine of economic growth and upward mobility for a very diverse population," said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. "The only way we can do all of those things together is through partnerships and innovation like the one that was announced here today."

The developer says work is being done with the local government and nonprofits to include affordable housing.

If the city approves the first application for the proposal, ground breaking and construction could start in 2025.