After renting land at a data center in Petah Tikva, Modi’in and Moshav Bnei Zion in the Sharon area, Google wants to establish its fourth farm in Israel in the nearby Moshav, Beit Yehoshua.
Winning of the government cloud tender
Following the winning of the Nimbus government cloud tender, Google is expanding its presence in Israel through the construction of local data centers that will provide computer services to government and IDF ministries, among others. In Israel it will be located near moshav Beit Yehoshua.
We found out that executives from Google’s cloud service have joined Yossi Schoenfeld’s Schoenfeld Engineering Company to locate the company’s fourth data center.
The area of the new data center
For the purpose of establishing the farm, Schoenfeld Engineering is in negotiations to purchase two plots of land in a total area of 4 dunams in Ashdar Park near the Beit Yehoshua train station for 15 million NIS. This is a small area for data centers, and Schoenfeld apparently intends to increase it through the purchase of additional land in the area.
For comparison, the area of the data center of Server Farm and Bezeq International in Moshav Bnei Zion stands at 9 dunams, and it is considered small by the standards of new data centers. The data centers that Amazon is building in Israel are similar in their features and the area on which they cover, about 15 dunams.
Spread as many risks as possible
Google is not obligated to fourth site according to the Nimbus tender, but it wants to spread as many risks as possible in order to create a continuity of service for its customers in the event that one of the data centers shuts down. Google is currently vigorously courting financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies that are in an accelerated transition to cloud computing, as well as security entities that work mostly with Microsoft. Although the distance between the data center site in Beit Yehoshua and the one in Bnei Zion does not exceed 5 kilometers, according to the rules of the government Nimbus tender, two data centers 25 km apart are sufficient – which in any case exists between the data center in Petah Tikva and the one located In intelligence.
Overcoming the Local Bureaucracy
We learned that in the past, officials in the Hof Hasharon local council, in collaboration with Server Farm, tried to set up a data center at another site in Beit Yehoshua through a rental deal. Server Farm withdrew from the deal and the area was eventually sold in cash to Muki Banda, the owner of Banda Magnetic, which plans to set up a logistics center there.
Unlike some Bnei Zion residents who oppose the construction of the farm near their place of residence due to the fear of proximity to diesel-based generators and noisy refrigeration facilities, it seems that for Beit Yehoshua residents, the new farm will be located away from the houses, near the cement plant and outside the municipal area. The locality does not foresee significant environmental consequences due to the establishment of the farm, and even if it does, its very presence outside the moshav area significantly reduces their ability to trick its approval.
Schoenfeld Engineering, formerly a company for the establishment of logistics centers, has in recent years become one of the most active development companies in the field of data center construction. She built the 9-megawatt SDS data center for Microsoft and Google in the Ligad industrial zone in Modiin. The farm will probably be educated in early 2022. In addition, Schoenfeld plans to build another data center on a larger scale in the central region. No response was received from the Hof Hasharon local council, Schoenfeld Engineering and Google.
The battle for a data centers building permit in Bnei Zion
Meanwhile, it became known that farms Another server being built for Google and Bezeq International, which is located in Moshav Bnei Zion, continues to cause a stir in the small town. The group of residents who petitioned against the process of building the data center, led by Avner Hadad, claimed last week that the construction violates the initial permit conditions at the site, which can only be excavated, dipped and established.
The group relied on the opinion of the engineering firm Kerem Consultants, which determined that the construction was ripe for pouring thin concrete as part of the process of building the floor of the building, and was therefore allegedly made in violation of the permit requirements. On the other hand, engineer Yehoram Mor Yosef from the management and supervision company Waxman Govrin Geva, who manages the project on behalf of Server Farm, claims that “the height of the thin concrete layer is a few centimeters and is by no means the floor of the building or part of it. The construction. “
In any case, immediately after Globes’ appeal to the Hof Hasharon Regional Council last Thursday, the Hof Hasharon Local Planning and Construction Committee approved the issuance of a full building permit for the data center earlier this week.
“The signing of the building permit was carried out without a preliminary discussion in the local committee where members of the local committee were allowed to review the plans and the causal opinion and express their views. “Opposition, and while denying a basic right of Bnei Zion residents, is in trouble and diligent to express their opinions and express their concerns about the consequences of the facility being built in the heart of the inhabited area,” Adv. Ami Hollander, representing the petitioner group from Moshav Bnei Zion. “As of Sunday, in a secret and hasty procedure, the local committee created a presentation of an act made of planning.
This created an absurd situation in which the local committee and elected members of the committee, who are supposed to serve as gatekeepers and representatives of the entire public interest (not only residents of Bnei Zion). Train a controversial business venture, which serves a small group in Bnei Zion – members of an association – who will benefit from rent in the coming years, from renting land owned by the JNF that was leased to the association for industrial and craft uses. It is doubtful whether the construction of a data center structure and storage of 207,000 liters of diesel, serves the purpose of the master plan and the purpose of the lease to an agricultural association. “
“The permit issuance procedure was carried out in accordance with the law”
The Hof Hasharon Local Planning and Construction Committee stated that “the permit issuance procedure was carried out in accordance with the law, including an examination and approval of an environmental report by the regional environmental unit that confirmed that data centers could be maintained on the site. Administrative and it will become clear there. “
The Ministry of the Environment claims that “this building permit was handled by the regional unit of the environment in Sharon, which has the relevant authority. “Hazardous materials and more, so that there is no factual basis for the residents’ concerns. After the establishment of the data centers, the ministry will check that there is indeed no exposure to noise and radiation at unreasonable and unjustified levels.”
Ministry of Environmental Protection inquiries about the establishment of data centers
“Recently, inquiries have begun to be received in the districts of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and in the various local authorities about the establishment of data centers,” the Ministry of the Environment said. “Apart from the energy consumption of data centers, another environmental problem arises from the construction of tens of megawatts of diesel-powered emergency generators, which will be part of these farms.
“In terms of environmental planning, data centers are essentially suitable for industrial and employment uses, so they should be located in an area designated for employment, industry or engineering facilities. Environmentalism with regard to day-to-day operations and emergency operations. “
The company Server Farm stated: “All work carried out and carried out in this project will be in accordance with the building permit issued by the authorities.”
In September, a group of residents from Moshav Bnei Zion petitioned against the process of approving the construction of the data center, claiming that the residents were not included as partners in discussions about the environmental consequences of operating the farm, such as the construction of a diesel-based power plant, noisy cooling facilities and radiation. The hearing in the petition will take place in about two weeks in the Lod District Court.
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