On Jan. 16, a prospective developer fired off an email to government and economic development leaders in nine cities across Michigan, including Battle Creek and Grand Rapids.
The pitch: a $285 million data center that would effectively use zero water through a complicated process, capturing up to 50,000 gallons per day from the atmosphere and not tap into the power grid by using a battery energy-storage system underneath the facility with power from solar panels instead.
Construction would bring $45 million worth of work to unions and skilled trades, the developer pitched in the email, on which a Crain’s Detroit reporter was carbon-copied. Communities, the email said, would be vying to revive the “Arsenal of Democracy.”…