This text was taken from an email alert sent out on Aug. 19, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
While data centers are a part of our modern world, their explosive growth is having unprecedented consequences, with change on local and state levels playing out in real time. These issues are especially concerning as Albemarle County updates its recently passed Data Center Ordinance.
Join us for a community meeting in Charlottesville Tuesday, Sept. 16, from 6-8 p.m. to hear from PEC’s data center experts about the industry’s environmental impacts and how advocating for better regulations and transparency in both the county and the state can help catalyze better outcomes for communities.
Data Center Community Meeting
Tuesday, Sept. 16 @ 6-8 p.m.
The Center
540 Belvedere Boulevard Charlottesville, Va
The meeting will include an opportunity to ask questions of PEC staff who are working on the ground in Albemarle, Loudoun, Culpeper, and Orange counties, where data center development and pending proposals are particularly concentrated. Detailed maps around the room will show the proposed data center overlay districts in Albemarle County, as well as the location of increased and larger transmission lines supporting data center growth.
This free event is open to the public, but we ask that you please register in advance since space is limited.
Data Center Impacts
Locally, Albemarle County is pushing to update its recently adopted Data Center Ordinance this fall, proposing that large data centers up to 500,000 square feet can be built without input from the public or elected officials in certain areas. The potential for noise pollution, visual obtrusion and diesel generator-caused air pollution, as well as the incompatibility of these large buildings near parks, residential neighborhoods and medical facilities are reasons enough to protect community members’ ability to voice their concerns when data center proposals are introduced in the future.
Impacts include:
- higher energy bills for nearly all consumers,
- new massive transmission lines and substations;
- impaired air quality;
- depletion of local water supplies,
- increased reliance on fossil fuels to be able to meet the massive energy requirements, which threaten Albemarle and Virginia’s ability to meet its hard-fought climate goals.
Read more about the proposed update to the Data Center Ordinance in our recent email alert.
Another Opportunity to Weigh in
Lastly, but certainly not least, at the state-level, PEC is working to protect ratepayers from Big Tech’s skyrocketing energy bill. Dominion Energy currently spreads the cost of the infrastructure associated with data centers, including transmission lines, substations, and power generation facilities onto customers. So, in addition to the above impacts, your electricity bill will be increasing to subsidize the costs from the largest companies in the world. Read more about this in our interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Join us in submitting comments to the State Corporation Commission using the form below by Tuesday, Aug. 26. The data center industry should be held financially responsible for its own energy demand and buildout, not consumers.
More info and a sample letter →
Learn about this and more at our Data Center Community Meeting in Charlottesville Tuesday, Sept. 16 from 6-8 p.m. Register today!
See you there,
Faith Schweikert
Communications Specialist
[email protected]
(434) 977-2033 x7026