Prince William County’s planning staff and the Planning Commission have recommended denial of the Digital Gateway rezonings.
Prince William County
Land use issues in Prince William County have an outsized impact on PEC’s nine-county region, considering its proximity to Fauquier and Loudoun.
Existing and Proposed Data Centers – A Web Map
How many data centers currently exist in Virginia? How many proposals are in the works? These are very good questions. It’s also extremely difficult to provide an answer, given there is no publicly available dataset or state-level tracking of these facilities. In response, The Piedmont Environmental Council has pulled together an online web map showing existing data center facilities (that we are aware of), along with pending data center proposals we have found on various town and county websites, as well as through various news outlets.
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!
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.
Transmission Proposals – PEC Web Map
Transmission line proposals to serve the explosive growth of data centers in Virginia over the past few years have begun to roll in.
PEC Presentation on Data Centers & Virginia’s Clean Energy Future
On June 10, 2023, The Piedmont Environmental Council hosted our annual meeting in Loudoun County and featured a workshop on data centers and Virginia’s clean energy future. The presentation, given by PEC’s Senior Energy and Climate Policy Analyst Ashish Kapoor and Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse, is available to view and download below.
Questions Swirl Around Data Centers – How Many, Where and at What Cost?
Although DEQ’s proposed variance for data center diesel generator has been pulled, the underlying issue remains: Is this continued boom in data center development sustainable?
PEC Presentation on Data Centers & Potential Reliance on Backup Diesel Generators
On March 28, 2023, The Piedmont Environmental Council hosted a local information session in Loudoun County about a variance being proposed by The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to allow Loudoun data centers to use their backup diesel generators more frequently during the coming summer.