San Jose Green Homes and Tech Hubs Project Due to Launch in 2025
An ambitious and massive effort to produce thousands of homes alongside data centers in downtown San Jose, with key support from PG&E, is slated to launch in 2025.
Global developer Westbank, PG&E and the city of San Jose have allied to speed the development of eco-friendly housing towers whose energy would be powered by surplus heat from nearby data centers.
“Our first ground-up housing development will be in 2025,” said Andrew Jacobson, vice president of the U.S. for Westbank.
Around the same time one or more housing projects break ground in downtown San Jose, Westbank will launch the construction of data centers to help provide energy for adjacent residential units.
Canada-based Westbank believes that developing housing next to data centers could be a huge catalyst for environmentally friendly housing projects by using excess heat to provide energy to nearby homes.
“You could have an entire downtown powered by data centers,” Ian Gillespie, Westbank’s chief executive officer and founder, said on Nov. 13 when the initiative was announced.
At least two of Westbank’s housing projects will include a stand-alone data center that would rise next to the residential buildings and supply the homes with excess heat that would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere.
