LightEdge signs letter of intent for 10-acre Iowa data center campus

LightEdge has signed a letter of intent to buy ten acres in Boone, Iowa, for a colocation data center, roughly 48 miles northwest of its Des Moines headquarters. Data Center Dynamics reported the agreement with the Boone County Economic Growth Corporation on Oct. 16. The land sits in the Boone Business Park, and LightEdge is pursuing the project through Edge Boone LLC at 1920 Lakewood Drive.

Boone's planning and zoning commission has reviewed the site plan and recommended it to the city council, and LightEdge says it will not seek tax incentives from the city. BCEGC executive director Brenda Dreyer said last month the site was platted for industrial use more than 20 years ago, would use existing infrastructure and would add jobs and tax base.

LightEdge's website says utility Alliant has indicated up to 46MW could be available, but the company says it will begin with a much smaller load and scale over years or decades depending on customer demand. Whether the facility ever reaches 46MW has not been determined.

A 46MW campus would be more than seven times the 6.1MW LightEdge runs across 40,000 sq ft of white space in two Altoona data centers. That makes the utility's figure a potential ceiling, not a first-phase construction target. The first phase's capacity remains open.

The Boone project would use closed-loop cooling to reduce water use.