Levitate seeks approval for micro data center in Concord, New Hampshire
Levitate Inc. is seeking approval to build an 8,160-square-foot micro data center at 52 Locke Road in Concord. The project is scheduled for a Planning Board public hearing and uses immersion cooling and heat recovery to reduce water consumption, while the applicant plans to restore wetland buffer damaged by earlier clear-cutting.
Levitate Inc. plans to develop a 15-megawatt micro data center at 52 Locke Road in East Concord, with construction potentially beginning before the end of the year if the Concord Planning Board approves the proposal. CEO Ryan Howard said the facility will use closed-loop single-phase immersion cooling and repurpose server heat for sidewalks, greenhouses, soil and other applications, distinguishing it from large hyperscale facilities that consume substantial amounts of power and water.
City Planner Kellie Caron determined that the facility can be classified as a permitted computer-processing use in an industrial zone and does not require a variance. The project remains subject to a public hearing, while the Concord Conservation Commission has reviewed a conditional-use application addressing the restoration of more than an acre of wetland buffer that was cleared during logging on the property. Northpoint Engineering revised the proposal to limit municipal water use to fire suppression and domestic needs rather than server cooling.