Hilliard residents raise concern over fuel cell addition to data center
HILLIARD, Ohio (WCMH) -- Hilliard City Council and residents are opposing an energy project linked to the Amazon data center. The company plans to install over 200 fuel cells at its facility off Scioto Darby Creek Road.
"I think if people sit back and don't say anything, that's not going to change anything," resident Chris Ighnat said. "So, we're looking to change what's happening over there."
Chris Ighnat is behind a petition that's already received over 600 signatures urging council to appoint special counsel and file an appeal to stop construction.
At Monday night's city council meeting they approved a motion to hire an outside law firm that specializes in environmental impact issues. They have until Nov. 8 to file their appeal.
"We were pleased with the level of support from city council today but it's a big fight," resident Ted Cannelongo said.
The city of Hilliard originally opposed the natural gas fuel cell power plant that Amazon Web Services and AEP Ohio plan to use to power multiple data centers in Hilliard near homes and schools but the state ultimately has the final say and approved it anyway.
"The way that this got approved, the approvals did not follow suit, the notifications, the communication, and overall, the transparency was not there," Ighnat said.
Several residents spoke during public comment Monday night. They raised concerns surrounding long-term health impacts because the fuel cells will be powered by a large gas pipelines. Residents say there are too many unanswered questions about how this project could affect families living nearby.
"The CO2 is probably the biggest one," Ighnat said. "Fire safety. Right. Norwich Township has not received any plan from AEP or Amazon about how they're going to handle whatever may happen over there. There's health and respiratory concerns, diminishing home values."
In a statement, AEP Ohio said:
"AEP Ohio appreciates the relationship we have with the Hilliard community. We remain committed to maintaining those relationships as we deliver innovative solutions for our customers that are safe and comply with all laws and regulations applicable to their operation — in this case, an onsite fuel cell system at a customer’s site. Fuel cells have proven to be a safe, clean solution for customers' energy needs. Per regulatory approvals for this project, AEP Ohio will ensure that local first responders are trained on potential fuel cell emergencies. Fuel cells have low emissions characteristics, since they do not provide energy through combustion, and any emissions will be within the limits set by the Ohio EPA."
In a statement, Amazon said:
“We work with local utilities to access the energy needed to meet the needs of our customers. This includes collaborating with a diverse set of stakeholders to deliver highly reliable electricity from local power grids along with enabling new carbon-free generation sources like solar and wind. In some instances, such as in Franklin County, the local utility will deploy fuel cells as an interim solution to power a small portion of our overall data center operations while we await completion of larger scale transmission and distribution upgrades in Ohio.”
"While this technology is touted as a green technology, it hasn't really been deployed at this scale in North America and there also really aren't requirements in place right now to perform the kind of impact studies, run the dispersion modeling, to understand exactly what the health impacts are," Cannelongo said.
Those same fears were shared by councilmembers who said they felt blindsided by the state's decision to move the project forward without local approval.
"We all understand the need for energy in the United States and across the world, actually," Hilliard City Councilmember Les Carrier said. "But you can't just be throwing up 1.5 million pounds of CO2 a day into the air next to a neighborhood to school without some kind of measurement of what that means."
AEP Ohio and AWS plan to begin construction on the fuel cell system in January, to be completed around September 2027. The project is slated to be temporary until AEP Ohio can catch up with demands on the grid.
"This fight's just warming up," Carrier said. "We need to reach out, get to other communities and make sure that there's some balance in this approach."