A data center developer zapped the University of Delaware with a state court lawsuit Wednesday, alleging the school wrongfully broke off a lease deal for a $1.3 billion project after environmental activists came out against the plan’s on-site power plant.
The Data Centers LLC, which won a University of Delaware bidding process in 2012 to negotiate development of the data center, alleges that the university recently broke off a 75-year ground lease agreement and letter of intent to purchase excess steam from the proposed complex’s 279-megawatt plant after activists came out against the project. The university lied about why it terminated the deal, blaming the project’s quality rather than the environmentalists’ opposition, the suit says.
“The University of Delaware is a sophisticated institution with equally sophisticated technical and legal advisers. They saw early on that Data Centers would be a powerful economic engine and an environmentally friendly provider of energy — all to the benefit of the university, the city of Newark and the state. Sadly, the university is allowing junk science and fear-mongering by a handful of environmental extremists and professors in lockstep to overwhelm rational thought, logic and the notion of fair dealing,” Michael P. Kelly, a McCarter & English attorney serving as lead counsel for TDC, said in a statement.
2.4.2015