Little agreement on data centers except ‘not here’

If you’re reading this, whether on your phone or a desktop computer or a tablet, the electrons that comprise all this data went through a data center.

That’s where the controversy begins.

Data centers — basically big warehouses of the computers that make the internet “go” — are concentrated in Northern Virginia, except that there is growing opposition to having so many of them there.

Data centers are also well-known energy hogs. Dominion Energy says that 24% of its power now goes to data centers. (Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy .)

Meanwhile, solar farms are booming across Southside Virginia, but not everyone is happy about that. Some worry that their rural landscape is being transformed into an industrial one.

Those three facts are driving a new debate in Virginia: Should the state encourage or discourage the development of more data centers? Should it encourage data centers to locate somewhere other than Northern Virginia? What should the state do to handle the growing demand for more energy — especially when a lot of people don’t want that energy generation to take place near them?

To say that Cardinal readers are divided on this subject is an understatement. As part of our Cardinal Way project on civil discourse, we recently ran two opinion pieces on how to address the state’s energy demands, particularly as they relate to data centers, and invited readers to weigh in.

While this was not a scientific opinion poll, it’s clear that feelings about data centers and energy generation are both strong and often in conflict.

While Cardinal covers Southwest and Southside Virginia, we have developed a statewide audience, and that was evident in the reader responses to these questions. Most of the readers who responded live outside our main coverage area. We even had one reader weigh in from Pennsylvania. Patrick Kniesler of Hanover, Pennsylvania, warned that the growth of data centers in Northern Virginia has impacts on his state. “Don’t get your energy from Pennsylvania,” he said. “They want to put new 500kv lines across rural MD and using our power plants will also raise our energy rates. The decisions your state are making are affecting neighboring states.” His preferred solution: “Approve micronuclear sites in Northern Virginia … NOVA is one of the most secure locations on the planet, micro nuclear sites are a great fit.”

His answer fits a pattern: None of the readers who responded seemed interested in having data centers — or energy generation — near them. Many of the readers from Northern Virginia who responded were in favor of directing data centers to more rural parts of the state, but the rural readers who responded seemed wary.

“Bringing in data centers and then scrambling to build inefficient, dirty, and crappy energy production facilities to keep up with that demand is putting the cart before the horse,” wrote Emmy Kelly of Lee County. “Data centers are a necessity for our technological world, but the state does not need to be chasing after them like they currently are.”

Becky Coleman of Gate City in Scott County agreed: “The growth of data centers and the availability of energy have got to pace each other. Otherwise, there will be a rush to build data centers with a possibly thoughtless approach to powering them, particularly in rural areas. I can literally see dollar marks hanging over the heads of economic developers in Southwest Virginia, who are imagining an economic boom that would accompany the construction of data centers. First, we need to imagine how the infrastructure needs would be met.”

The most enthusiastic response from a rural reader came from Austin Counts of Wise County, who couched his response with multiple cautions: “Data centers could be more equitably dispersed across the commonwealth. There has been a tendency of the industry to create super clusters of these centers, but that doesn’t have to be the case. More Virginians may be interested in seeing a data center in their community if they are assured that it will not turn into a sea of centers providing minimal jobs while receiving additional tax benefits.” That’s tricky because industries of all sorts like to cluster; an industry cluster leads to a bigger labor pool to draw from.

One thing that did unite readers was the feeling that Virginia has extended too many tax breaks to data centers as a way to attract the industry. “Repeal tax incentives,” wrote Mike Fultz of Warrenton in Fauquier County. “Data centers need to pay for their transmission lines, the SCC [State Corporation Commission] should better balance what residential consumers pay for power versus data centers.”

He also thought more nuclear energy is part of the answer. Rees Shearer of Washington County emphatically disagrees with the need for more nuclear power but agrees with Fultz on the tax incentives and the need for more regulation. “Utilities should be required to create a new rate class for data centers so that the heavy cost of energy generation expansion does not fall upon existing rate payers, especially residential customers” and also businesses, Shearer wrote. “Now, we all share in the cost of any data center-induced new power generation facility. Finally, Virginia’s tax incentives for data centers should be revised to require a carbon-free tariff for data centers matching their demand and renewable energy generation on an hourly basis.”

We’ll be back soon with a new topic where readers can respond.

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