“As data centers continue to proliferate across Virginia, the General Assembly this winter is poised to take up a host of bills intended to address their impacts, including increased electricity costs and environmental pressures,” reports Charlie Paullin at The Virginia Mercury. “Virginia is home to the greatest concentration of data centers in the world. While the centers can be found around the state, most are in Northern Virginia, which has more than 300. Eastern Loudoun County, where the facilities cover roughly 573 acres, is known as Data Center Alley, and Prince William is increasingly becoming a hot spot after local officials recently approved a campus of 27 centers that would sit on 270 acres.”
“Local activists and officials are joining hands to oppose Dominion Energy’s efforts to build a new substation and transmission lines near Gainesville to fuel data centers,” reports Ben Peters at Insidenova.com.
We incorrectly posted a photo of Brentsville District Supervisor Tom Gordy in an earlier version of this post.
The Board of Supervisors approved a new tax agreement with Amazon Data Services for the next 25 years to generate nearly $1 billion for county tax coffers.
In exchange for tax breaks, the data behemoth will invest $392 million into the county's utility system, upgrading water infrastructure to handle the demands that data centers place on the system, which require large amounts of water to cool the computers inside. Amazon and other utility customers will enjoy the upgrades the data giant will fund.
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Several Bristow residents are joining forces to fight the controversial Devlin Technology Park data center rezoning in court, reports Cher Muzyk and Jill Palermo at Prince William Times.
The data center behemoth pushed the board to waive its bylaws and approve financial incentives to benefit the company for 25 years. During that time, Amazon promises to build server farms in various spots across the county.
An estimated $6 billion in water and infrastructure upgrades are needed before Amazon can begin to build. Under the proposal, the county would provide tax breaks for up to 60 percent of annual tax revenues generated by the server farms in exchange for Amazon to make the upgrades, to power the water and power-hungry data centers that power the internet.
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Two of Prince William County’s public servants, Ann Wheeler and Jeanine Lawson, were recognized by the Board of County supervisors amid their retirement from public service. The two were honored at the board’s December 19 meeting in Woodbridge.
Chair-At-large Ann Wheeler, a Democrat, is leaving the board after losing a Primary Election to Deshundra Jefferson, a Democrat, in June 2023. Wheeler served as the Chair at-large on the board for a four-year term starting in 2020.
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Amazon wants to build 510,000 square feet of data center space, prompting a special Stafford County Board of Supervisors meeting on Thursday, December 28, 2023.
Supervisors will be asked to approve 510,000 square feet of data center space on 50 acres next to Stafford Hospital, the Potomac Church site. Two server farms will sit on the site if approved.
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“With the recent vote to approve the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway, Prince William County is on track to become the data center capital of North America — if not the world. Critical to the project’s approval was Supervisor Kenny Boddye’s decision to abstain, allowing it to pass on a split 4-3-1 vote,” reports Shannon Clark at the Prince William Times.
