This has been a very busy, and challenging, legislative session.
Julie Bolthouse
Julie Bolthouse is The Piedmont Environmental Council's land use field representative for Fauquier County.
Power Surge: Data center boom leads to expansive transmission proposals
We must address the booming data center growth in our state that is requiring unprecedented expansions of our energy grid and hindering our ability to get off of fossil fuels.
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission Authorizes Data Center Study
On Dec. 11, 2023, the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission passed a resolution authorizing a robust study into recent and expected trends within the data center industry.
Prince William Board to Vote on World’s Largest Data Center Proposal Dec. 12
Prince William County’s planning staff and the Planning Commission have recommended denial of the Digital Gateway rezonings.
Transmission line update and community meeting invite
In September, I wrote to you about the explosive growth of Virginia’s data center industry and one of the side effects: a major push for new transmission lines.
Putting the Pieces Together on Digital Gateway
Since 2021, PEC has been supporting our partners’ heroic efforts to stop the largest data center campus in the world from being built on rural land next to Manassas National Battlefield Park, along Pageland Lane in Prince William County, Virginia.
The proposal, dubbed “Digital Gateway,” is massive and is projected to require around 3 gigawatts (GW) of energy. For context, that’s equivalent to the power used by 750,000 homes – roughly 5 times the number of households currently in Prince William County!
PEC Presentation on Planning for the Digital Age
In August, PEC’s Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse presented “Planning for the Digital Age” to the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Latest on Amazon’s data center in Warrenton
Since we last updated you on Amazon’s Warrenton data center, Amazon has spent these couple of months responding to the Town’s first round of comments on its initial site development plan.
Data Centers, Surging Power Demand Take Center Stage
The size, scale, and speed at which applications for data center projects are coming in and being approved is astounding.
Just this month, massive proposals moved forward in Culpeper, Louisa, and King George counties, with more being reviewed in Caroline and Stafford counties. Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, and Fauquier counties all have multiple active proposals for hyperscale data centers, which can demand hundreds of megawatts of power per campus. As an example, the data center campus just approved in King George County could total more than 1,200 MW alone.
The Environmental Footprint of the Digital Age
Virginia is subsidizing billions of dollars in data center development on the backs of its ratepayers, without a full understanding of the long-term ramifications.