ADVOCATING FOR A SMART, TRANSPARENT APPROACH TO DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT IN VIRGINIA

State leaders are failing to take action, unchecked data center expansion is negatively impacting Virginia’s ratepayers, communities and natural resources

Why Does it Matter?

Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, with more than 470 data centers statewide. The burden to power the data of the world rests on Virginians, leading to...
- Statewide power brownouts
- Wreaking havoc on our natural landscape
- Exponentially increasing utility bills to subsidize Big Tech like Google and Amazon so that they profit.

More data centers are headed to Virginia, and Virginians are unaware of what their future holds.

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Existing and Proposed Data Centers

Data provided by the Piedmont Environmental Council

View the Interactive Map

By The Numbers

The rapid growth of data centers is creating an unprecedented and exploding demand for energy, land and water, and our communities are paying the costs. Energy peak load demand projections range as high as 60 gigawatts (GW) by 2050. That’s nearly three times Virginia’s current peak load of 22GW.

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100-200%

monthly ratepayer increase by 2039

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45-60GW

of energy needed by 2040

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260M sqft

of data centers approved and in the pipeline.

For context, 1 gigwatt (GW) of energy powers about 250,000 homes in the U.S. Data center development, not homes, is responsible for almost all of the projected increase in Virginia’s energy demand.