KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers Johnson County. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of health care, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.
—
A $3 billion data center is under construction in De Soto off 103rd Street and Edgerton Road near K-10. Just down the street, Panasonic officials shared plans to begin producing data center battery cells at its De Soto plant within the next few years.
Michelle Kauk, director of public policy and communications for Beale Infrastructure — the data center's developer — said the company is listening to community concerns.
"We often hear, generally about data centers, people have concerns about water, they have concerns about energy prices going up," Kauk said.
Kauk said Beale pays for 100% of the infrastructure related to powering its projects and has designed the facility to limit its water use.
"With our design, we are doing an air-cooled closed loop system, that means that we are minimizing our water impact and our water footprint," Kauk said.
Kauk said the project also includes investments in the broader De Soto community.
"We launched a $250,000 community investment fund recently, already going to projects in the city of De Soto, going to Johnson County Community College," Kauk said.
Kauk also said this Beale Infrastructure project is expected to bring 400 to 800 local construction jobs. Once operational, each phase of the site is expected to support 50 jobs, along with more than 100 contract worker positions and additional opportunities for local vendors and suppliers. The company has already broken ground, and construction is expected to take up to two years to complete.
Beale Infrastructure's data center campus is one of two possible data center projects in De Soto.
Residents shared their thoughts and questions about Beale Infrastructure's data center at a listening session in June, raising concerns about energy usage, water supply, and environmental impacts.
"I'm concerned about the water supply issues, the environmental impacts," Emily Lednicky, who owns a business in De Soto, said. "It's just not worth any risk economically to me."
Sara VanDeCreek, who lives and works in De Soto, said the city needs better communication and preparation.
"My biggest concern is that De Soto is not prepared for the type of industrial development that they're asking and bringing into the community," VanDeCreek said. "I'm not saying that data centers don't need to happen, they do need to probably happen, but do they need to happen on K-10, right in the middle of a community where there's people living?"
Some residents also raised concerns about the format of the session's question-and-answer portion, which was conducted one-on-one rather than in an open forum.
"Right now nobody else from De Soto knows what we talked about," David Smith, who lives in De Soto, said.
David and Tracy Smith did say they left the session feeling better than when they walked in.
"We were able to ask questions and get those answered," Tracy Smith said.
Meanwhile, a Panasonic spokesperson confirmed the nearby neighbor is planning to add data center battery cell production to some lines at its De Soto plant.
Panasonic shared this statement with KSHB 41:
"As a global leader in battery innovation, Panasonic Energy is constantly evaluating new opportunities to deliver high-quality products to the market. In addition to meeting our existing EV battery customer commitments, we are exploring options to use some of our U.S. production capacity to address the growing need for data center energy storage.
Panasonic Energy built our wholly owned lithium-ion battery facility in Kansas as part of our long-term commitment to investing in American manufacturing and advancing the EV industry in the U.S. This facility is designed to be agile and responsive to the market and our diverse customers needs.
Panasonic Energy is in the beginning stages of planning its data center battery cell production in Kansas. The first data center battery cells are anticipated to be produced in mid to late 2028 or early 2029. The data center battery cell production effort is part of a $2.18 billion-dollar global investment.
The ramp up for EV battery cell production at the Kansas facility will continue to be determined by customer demand. Four production lines are in operation. There are more than 1,800 employees working at the facility right now. There is no new information to share from what has previously been reported about Panasonic's hiring projections."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
—
