(VIDEO) Ellendale, ND, A Small Town Shaping a Digital Revolution

standndgov on January 29, 2025

Ellendale is a rural community in southeastern North Dakota, home to approximately 1,000 people. With deep roots in agriculture and a straightforward way of life, the town embodies the essence of rural North Dakota, a blend of tradition and resilience set against the vast backdrop of the prairie.

The region has experienced substantial growth in wind energy development, resulting in an abundance of underutilized power. Recognizing this potential, Applied Digital, a leader in designing, building, and operating next generation data centers, built a 100-megawatt facility outside of Ellendale. The facility is an example of how digital innovation can coexist and support the local economy while honoring rural values.

I’m Kayla Ver Helst, sustainability officer at the Bank of North Dakota. This video, part of the STAND docuseries showcases Applied Digital’s data center in Ellendale, North Dakota.

I believe that what’s happening today guarantees that Ellendale is a part of this area and an influence in this part of of southeastern North Dakota, well into the 22nd century. Ellendale still has a small town charm that hasn’t changed. In fact, if anything, I think that’s going to be one of our biggest pluses because as Applied Digital and the plans that they have continue to expand, and now we have people moving into our community from all over the country. We can either embrace those people, make them feel welcome, make them the feel part of the community.

During peak construction, 450 workers boosted the local population, bringing significant activity to the area. In addition to attracting workers and families, Applied Digital generates sales tax and property tax revenue, which can fund additional services and infrastructure improvements. However, these benefits depend on a dedicated workforce as well as support from the local and state government.

As that population grows a little bit, it provides a lot of opportunity for services that otherwise just aren’t here, you know, to come into town. So hopefully five, 10 years out we see another 50, 100, 200 new homes, plus a part including apartments as well as single family homes, and hopefully we see a lot of other business developments and opportunities for folks, you know, to grow here and stay here.

We have an opportunity and we’re grabbing a hold of it to help us grow. And if I can encourage anyone in small town, not just North Dakota, but but small town America, you’re going to have opportunities. It might be technological, it might be in some other area, some other phase. Be prepared that when those things happen, you embrace those and work together with those. Don’t shun away from it. Be an active part, because by helping to cultivate that, by helping to be an active part of that, you are not only going to make your community stronger, you’re going to make that industry or that business strong, and that helps everyone.

North Dakotans were just really extremely hard workers. Every day people would show up, they would come to work, they would put in the hours they would put in the time, and you can’t say that about every community in every state that that we work in.

We’ve continued to invest in North Dakota because we’ve had such a good experience both on the state, you know, government side, the local government side, where they’re very accommodating, willing to work with us.

I don’t think that Applied Digital is the end. I think it’s just the beginning. I think that there are other things that are going to happen because of Applied Digital coming into our community, because of those new people coming into our community that are going to create other newer business opportunities and other new, community opportunities and things of that nature that are going to make our community even stronger and better.

Applied Digital has become a cornerstone of Ellendale’s recent growth, enhancing the town’s sustainability and vitality for generations to come. Visit STAND.nd.gov for more authentic stories of sustainability and transformation from people creating real change in North Dakota’s energy, agriculture, conservation and carbon management efforts.

(VIDEO) Applied Digital Aligns Climate and Energy to Transform Data Centers

standndgov on January 29, 2025

When you flip a light switch or turn on a faucet, you rarely pause to consider the electricity traveling through transmission lines or water flowing seamlessly through underground pipes. Every time you make a call, shop online or access your medical records, there’s a silent, vital infrastructure at work. Behind these everyday conveniences are data centers, vast facilities filled with rows of servers and sophisticated cooling systems.

These modern powerhouses efficiently process and safeguard the information that drives business and keeps us connected to the world. Once known for high energy demands and environmental impact, data centers are undergoing a quiet revolution, and this transformation is reshaping how we view the digital age, not just as a driver of innovation and convenience, but as an opportunity to build a more sustainable future.

I’m Kayla Ver Helst, sustainability officer at the Bank of North Dakota. This video, part of the STAND docuseries, highlights the collaborative relationship between Applied Digital and the community of Ellendale, North Dakota.

Over the last 10 and 20 years, data centers have transformed a lot. There’s a lot more density, a lot more energy used in a much smaller amount of space, with that comes a lot more heat.

Data centers built in hotter climates require intensive cooling systems, which drives up energy demands and operational costs while amplifying environmental concerns.

So, for us coming to North Dakota, where we’re not fighting nature, we’re able to utilize the cold nature, you know, that’s outside a large part of the year. We’re able to cool the facilities much more efficiently, which means we’re not using large amounts of water, and it means we’re able to save on energy as we cool the facilities down.

One of the unique things about data center loads is they have an ability to reduce their consumption, as far as very quickly, and so, they have an ability if it’s during high pricing, you know, events on the system for energy prices or even in grid emergencies to be able to power down and reduce their consumptions or start standby generation. That really helps, you know, protect the grid and the reliability. We’re able to ramp down the power utilization at that facility very quickly. So, our Ellendale, North Dakota facility at peak usage, which is pretty much all of the time, it’s 180 megawatts.

We’re able to ramp that 180 megawatts., down to 18 megawatts in about five minutes. The benefit there is that the grid becomes much more resilient and able to react quickly to changes in demand for electricity from others than just us, and we’re able to really stabilize the grid.

We’ve got the state’s largest battery, at 100 megawatts. We need to be able to carry our entire load as we shift over from grid power to backup generation if we need to come offline from the grid.

North Dakota is a net exporting, energy state, so there’s been a lot of wind energy development that’s happened down in the southeast part of the state over the last 10 years. They’re situated very well as far as having a strong wind resource, but also there is, a lot of transmission that runs through that area historically and a lot of investments that have been made in transmission, through work that MISO has been doing.

North Dakota’s sophisticated energy transmission network also pulls in baseload generation and natural gas energy from the central part of the state and resources from South Dakota. Smart design and utilization of transmission assets created a $5.4 million return to MDU resident electric customers in 2023. In 2024, that number could be around $14 million, or about $70 per customer.

Applied Digital is transforming North Dakota’s digital landscape. Visit STAND.nd.gov for more authentic stories of sustainability and transformation from people creating real change in North Dakota’s energy, agriculture, conservation and carbon management efforts