Becky Willard asked the county commissioners to expand the current moratorium in effect to include three new items: private energy campuses, hyperscale AI data centers, and a solar project near McCune. A private energy campus is a piece of infrastructure designed to support the high-energy usage of data centers. Kansas House Bill HB 2664 would allow tech companies to build such a complex independent of the existing power grid, sometimes combining wind, solar, natural gas and nuclear power. Supporters of the bill argue that by letting tech companies bypass government bureaucracy, Kansas can more easily attract high-tech industry and massive capital investment. The problem is who pays for the existing power grid. Maintaining the grid does not get cheaper if fewer people are on it. If big tech is allowed to build their own grids, the remaining customers have to pick up the slack in lost revenue used to maintain the grid, while at the same time, the private campuses remain hooked into the public grid for emergencies.
Read more: Morning Sun
