Data centers, proliferating statewide, could soon be built on mined lands in Southwest Virginia

Wise County in Southwest Virginia. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)

This is Part 3 of a three-part series on efforts to develop on abandoned mine lands in Southwest Virginia. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here .

Under federal regulations, mine companies begin operation in Southwest Virginia, dig for their coal and then return the land close to its natural condition or in a state that can be built on for a future use.

At the same time, renewable energy developers are looking for just such land where they can construct their projects.

“We can get in the middle and put the right partners together,” said Will Payne, a managing partner at Coalfield Strategies and advisor to the Southwest Virginia DELTA lab.

The Southwest Virginia Energy DELTA lab is aiming to create the Data Center Ridge project, to be composed of several of the energy-intensive warehouses that hold computers processing the increasingly-used internet. The power-hungry data centers will require new electricity generation sources to be built to provide that power supply. The project’s developers are planning for the building of the generation sources to spur long-term jobs, held by employees who will operate and maintain them.

“We don’t think you can do that anywhere else in Virginia,” said Payne. “There is a coordinated strategy where we’re thinking about all the projects, how there is synergy.”

The initiative has been met with several questions, particularly whether the abandoned mine land to be built on is stable, as past mining operations could have created hidden underground wetlands. There’s also the question of how effectively “mine water,” pools of rainwater that collects in formerly mined sites before reaching the aquifer, from the site can be used to keep the processors cool.

One group, Southwest Virginia Nuclear Watch, said they would prefer the power for the centers to come from renewable energy and not a nuclear source like a small modular reactor, a technology that continues to pique development interests. SMRS haven’t been deployed stateside, but could provide more readily available power than renewable while also not emitting the planet-warming greenhouse gasses released by burning fossil fuels.

“We’re not totally against data centers right now, but we do have lots of questions,” said Sharon Fisher, a member of SWVA Nuclear Watch and the grassroots environmental group The Clinch Coalition.

The project

Data center development has exploded in the rest of the state, particularly Northern Virginia, creating debates over whether the tax revenue the centers inject into local coffers are worth the clear-cutting of forests, draw on water resources, obstructed views and noise disruptions that come with them. Southwest Virginia hasn’t seen much data center development, according to a map from the Piedmont Environmental Council.

What makes the region appealing for data center development, proponents say, is that they could be sited on abandoned mine lands, the properties that were left unrestored after mining companies finished digging for coal, prior to requirements in the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act that imposed penalties on companies for doing so.

A Data Center Ridge site has been identified in Wise County, at an unspecified location due to some incomplete mining operations.

The pitch for the project includes the potential to host about 10-12 hyperscale data centers on a 400-acre site. Hyperscale data centers can compute at speeds faster than traditional data centers, to meet the needs of complex artificial intelligence programs.

To prevent overheating without drawing on natural resources, mine water from the previously mined property will be circulated to the facility. The mine water’s temperature is 55 degrees or below, about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than a river that may be relied on to cool data centers in other parts of the state.

A lower tax rate of 24 cents per $100 in assessed value — compared to $3.70 in Prince William County — can pad local budgets, adding to the appeal.

Renewable energy

Discussions about converting the regional economy to focus on renewable energy have been occurring for a couple years , but it’s the one gigawatt of electricity that Data Center Ridge could demand that is furthering discussion to deploy solar, nuclear and potentially blue hydrogen from natural gas in the region.

To avoid taking up coveted prime farm and forestland, and other reclaimed abandoned mine lands that may be suitable for traditional economic revitalization projects, Data Center Ridge developers are looking at the already disturbed sites in more remote areas. The Nature Conservancy has taken that approach with a Cumberland Forest Project that mixes mining with conservation.

Solar that is behind-the-meter, meaning it serves only the facility and not the grid like a front-of-the-meter project does, could supply the needed power.

A small modular reactor, which could produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity compared to a traditional reactor, could be part of the mix, despite the technology’s nascent nature. Republican U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, who represents the area, has requested $1.4 million from the federal government in order to explore how mine water could support an SMR.

But there’s more.

Playing a part in the region’s economy as coal has dwindled and renewables have yet to fully take off: natural gas, which had a market value of $217.1 million in 2023. The Energy DELTA Lab could tap into existing natural gas infrastructure to create hydrogen , an energy source derived from electrifying water. With natural gas as the power source and carbon capturing, the form of hydrogen made would be blue, which is different from the green hydrogen that environmental groups prefer by using emission free renewables.

“There is no way to do this without every form of energy,” said Will Clear, a former deputy director for Virginia Energy. “Every service that we have, technology wise, has an impact on the environment. …The key for us is to figure out the least environmental impact that we can possibly have and continue to live a modern life.”

While Virginia Energy has hosted community meetings about their traditional AMLER projects and both Payne and Clear have presented to the state’s Virginia Council on Environmental Justice, Fisher says there’s a lack of community involvement happening.

“We hear about most of these things through press releases, and we get tidbits,” said Fisher, whose concerns about the project include what to do with radioactive waste. “For us to try to dig into all of this, trying to get transparency, trying to understand what’s really going on, that’s the battle we’ve had for the last year and a half.”

Workforce training

The jobs created by Data Center Ridge could give students who graduate from evolving community school programs the jobs people in the area want, said Clear and Payne.

Mountain Empire Community College, one of the higher education institutions in the area, is working to get students who graduate from high school and may need to find employment to support their family to continue learning by attaining what they call a “stackable ” certification to get a job, said Kristen Westover, the college’s president.

Students there can get a certification in a field that can be matched to meet the region’s potential industry needs, such as cybersecurity or HVAC work, and then add, or stack, additional classes on it to get a two-year degree, which could be used to attain a four year degree. The percentage of students who go on to pursue a four-year degree jumps from 19% out of high school to 24% after attending MECC, Westover said.

“Whatever economy you’re in, with AI, with technology, the bar has been raised,” Westover said, noting the school isn’t advocating for the data center industry to come to the region like economic development proponents are, but is there to support the effort. “We need industry recognized credentials and post secondary education now.”

The end result of Data Center Ridge and the generation sources with it, Payne said, are the jobs that could pay more than double the average median income of about $48,000 , enough to keep people who get those credentials and degrees in the area, who would otherwise need to leave to find that type of job.

Wise County has a 65,000 square-foot Mineral Gap Data Center on 22 acres powered by an 3.4 megawatt solar project that is behind the meter. The $500,000 AMLER grant used for the solar project has supported 58 jobs.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that mine water, not groundwater, will be used to cool the Energy DELTA Lab’s data center processors.

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