Every time you connect to the internet, you're using a data center. Data centers exist to store, process, and access data and applications. With the rapid growth of digital technology and the internet, the demand for data storage and processing has increased significantly, meaning more data centers need to exist. Rowan builds data centers that are supported by renewables, such hydro, solar, and wind energy.

This high-value, low-impact project will increase the region's connectivity and will have a far higher economic return for the community than other uses of this land.

Absolutely. This project brings boundless potential to Morrow County, while redefining digital infrastructure development to focus on environmental stewardship. With Oregonians’ dependence on the internet, data centers are essentially a utility. The demand is far outpacing supply, and this project will help meet the growing need.

The property is located roughly 11 miles southwest of Boardman, and borders sites owned by Portland General Electric and the U.S. Navy. The property has been owned by Threemile Canyon Farms for several years, though never used because the soils are unproductive.

After a multiyear search throughout Umatilla and Morrow counties, this site was deliberately chosen for our data center project because it has never and will never be used for farming, due to extremely poor soil quality and lack of irrigation. According to Threemile Canyon Farms, the site has been vacant since at least 1952, and agriculture is not a viable option here.

Additionally, the site is less than half a mile away from other general industrial-zoned land. There is no need to build new transmission lines. The project intends to utilize existing and pre-planned routes, which will prevent any disruptions to the community.

Third-party land surveys indicate that no protected species, like the Washington Ground Squirrel, currently live on the property. The site is also not located within any identified big game migration routes or sensitive habitat.

Additionally, water usage is expected to be minimal compared to other non-data center utility-scale industrial projects in the area, and what is used will be recycled. The project is within the Morrow County water service district.

Rowan is committed to a net-zero facility powered 100% by renewable energy, which sets a new standard for sustainability in the data center industry.

We are working closely with the Port of Morrow, which has plans to deliver water to our site and other new developments nearby. While this means a new delivery pipe will need to be built, we are advocating for it to be within the public right-of-way, so there will be very minimal impacts to local traffic or adjacent agricultural operations.

We know that a construction site like this one might raise concerns about traffic and impacts to the road. We are working closely with Morrow County Public Works and nearby property owners to ensure that these impacts are minimal. We are doing this by exploring a road use agreement that means we’ll be responsible to road quality impacts in front of the property and that construction traffic doesn’t impede farm or other local traffic.

Third-party economic analysis show data center facilities in this region yield dozens of high-quality full-time jobs when operational. The average wage is much higher than the median household income for Morrow County.

Indirect and induced employment supported by ongoing operations would support several hundred additional employees in Morrow County, including vendors, commercial services, and beneficiaries of spending in the community.

Our goal is to hire as much local talent as possible to bring this project to life. We are working with local economic development organizations to ensure that these opportunities are available to local residents.

Tax dollars from this project will support local schools, law enforcement, and other shared priorities. Third-party economic analysis suggests that projects like this can represent hundreds of millions of dollars of direct and indirect capital investment (and eventually more than $1 billion).

We know from our conversations with community leaders that increasing the supply of affordable housing is a top priority. With the high number of jobs that this project is expected to bring to the county, Rowan is committed to assisting local leaders as they lead efforts to address housing needs throughout the region.

The project team submitted our application to rezone the property in spring 2023. From there, the community had several opportunities to weigh in during the summer of 2023 at planning commission and county commission public hearings.

On Sept. 25, the Morrow County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the project. Now, we expect to begin site approvals in late 2023/early 2024 with construction following shortly thereafter.

On July 25, the Morrow County Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the application. The Board of County Commissioners voted 3-0 in September to approve the project.

You can reach out to the project team with questions or requests to meet. Please use our contact form and a member of the team will get back to you soon.

Rowan Digital Infrastructure was established in 2020 to provide net zero power solutions for mission-critical green data centers. With this powered infrastructure-as-a-service offering, we can deliver customized and configurable solutions that provide our data center customers the flexibility they need to urgently decarbonize their operations.

It's important to note that Rowan is not a data center operator. Our company builds these facilities to our high sustainability standards, and then works with an end user to bring the project online. Currently there is no end user under contract with Rowan. The end user is typically identified closer to when site development is scheduled, and the project begins construction. Rowan is committed to ensuring a high standard of sustainability and that any end user continues to build on our strong partnerships with this community.