Virginia data centers: Growth, costs and community impact
Explore Richmond Times-Dispatch reporting by Dave Ress on Virginia’s expanding data center industry, from energy and water demands to development, regulation, environmental concerns and effects on local communities.
(28) updates to this series since Updated
The new forecast says revenue for the next two fiscal years will be $922.6 million above the forecast House and Senate budget writers have been working with.
Residential ratepayers would see credits on their power bills for twice as long under a series of revisions to NextEra Energy’s bid to acquire Dominion Energy.
Amazon has withdrawn a controversial bid for a permit to draw groundwater for a proposed data center campus in King George County.
Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, one of the most powerful, but so far silent, politicians in Virginia has weighed in with sweeping concerns about NextEra Energy’s proposed takeover of Dominion Energy.
Two former governors from different parties – Doug Wilder and Jim Gilmore – took what was billed as a look at Virginia's democratic legacy and decided to attack Gov. Abigail Spanberger as out of touch on data centers.
Shannon Taylor, the Democrat challenging Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, said she opposes NextEra Energy’s proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy.
A public notice in local newspapers that Amazon wants a permit to draw groundwater has alarmed King George County’s water utility and angered the county’s state senator.
State Corporation Commission chair Kelsey Bagot won't recuse herself from considering NextEra Energy's proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy.
The chair of the State Corporation Commission, which will rule on whether NextEra Energy can acquire Dominion Energy, was briefly a NextEra attorney, and has already recused herself from another case involving the firm.
Concerned that the merger of Dominion Energy into NextEra Energy could boost power bills, slow progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cost jobs, Gov. Abigail Spanberger says she wants to participate as state regulators review the deal.
The geologic formations that hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Virginia rely upon for their drinking water don’t hold enough water to supply the kind of large data centers developers are rushing to build in the state.
The feeler from NextEra to acquire Dominion Energy came out of the blue, but both firms agreed that bigger is better in the utility business, SCC filings show.
The budget deal that the General Assembly finalized on Monday paid off a day later with the announcement that a $73 billion data center campus proposed in Pittsylvania County would move forward.Â
For Gov. Abigail Spanberger, the first change to the 25-year-old electricity consumption tax is about data centers paying their fair share of taxes and being better neighbors.
Virginia budget negotiators have a deal for a new two-year spending plan that resolves — at least temporarily — an increasingly bitter debate between Democratic leaders about how the state should tax and regulate data centers.
As Virginia regulators and legislators grapple with the impact of data centers’ huge demand for electricity on other ratepayers’ bills, Sen. Mark Warner is co-sponsoring legislation for a national approach.
The explosive growth of data centers may upset many Virginians, but it looked like an opportunity to Wall Street — one that NextEra Energy is reaching for by merging with Dominion Energy.
The company said its Virginia operations saw a 15.6%, $314 million increase in operating earnings to $2.32 billion.
A compromise on data centers is coming: an effort to rein in any impact on Virginians’ power bills without stopping or slowing data center development.
Over the past year, the amount of electricity they’re asking Dominion to provide has jumped by 75%, reaching nearly 70,000 megawatts.
A bill aimed at limiting pollution from data centers’ backup diesel generators prompted a revision that now only calls for a study of more businesses’ generators.
The regional electric grid that covers Virginia should stop plugging in data centers until it has enough high-voltage lines and power plants to meet their demands for electricity, the grid’s watchdog says.
The state's data center boom is the subtext to increasingly intense politicking over longtime Virginia issues — climate change, electricity rates and the powers of local governments.
The state's telecommunications infrastructure, tax breaks, workforce and officials' welcoming attitude have helped make Virginia the world's data center capital.
Virginia’s data center boom means new terms to understand. Here are some key words and phrases.
The 451 now running in Virginia, home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, currently use 3,583 megawatts, or enough electricity to power nearly 896,000 homes.
These buildings that house key IT infrastructure are big, expensive and need a lot of energy but promise big revenues for localities.
Data center developers are now eyeing the Richmond area. While counties welcome the sites' tax revenues, residents' concerns have prompted developers to withdraw some proposals and Henrico imposed further oversight.
Virginia will move to give local and state officials more muscle to say when, where and how new data centers are built, under Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s new data center accountability framework.
