State regulators weigh expanded use of data centers' diesel backup generators

“Any increase in how often they’re running is going to cause corresponding localized air pollution.”

This past summer, a fire at an electrical substation forced data centers in Loudoun County to rely on backup diesel generators as their power source.

Grid failures like this happen often, but this time, shoppers in a nearby Walmart parking lot heard the noisy generators start up and reported smelling diesel fumes.

“People were like, ‘What is going on?’” said Julie Bolthouse, the director of land use for the Piedmont Environmental Council, an environmental nonprofit fighting data center sprawl. “This sounds like planes landing constantly for over 24 hours.”

Loudoun County Supervisor Mike Turner, who represents the Ashburn region known as “Data Center Alley” because it is home to the world’s largest concentration of the facilities, said email complaints flooded his inbox during the incident.

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