Electrical and Financial Impacts
Rendition of Takeoff Substation planned for Rt 50 and Avion Pkwy, Chantilly. Courtesy Dominion Energy
Virginia data centers consume more electricity than anywhere else in the world and as of 2024, 26% of Virginia's electricity is consumed by data centers and the growth is not abating. Dominion Energy's 835-acre solar farm at Dulles airport will supply 37,000 homes or one data center building.
According to the U.S. Energy Administration report released in 2022, a 100,000 SQFT in-patient hospital needs 2.6 MegaWatts (MW) of electricity - the same sized data center consumes 7 times that, and with a data center hosting Artificial Intelligence servers, more than 30 times the same sized hospital. We must put regulations in place to slow this train down before it's too late.
Key Points
Virginia Department of Education: avoid power lines and excessive noise near schools.
No proven economic benefit.
Data Center reap millions in tax exemptions.
New electrical substations required by data centers mean more land and higher electricity bills.
Vertical data centers, Cryptocurrency and AI consume enormous amounts of energy
Details
Virginia Department of Education: avoid power lines and excessive noise near schools. The Virginia Department of Education in their 2020 Guidelines for School Facilities states, “proximity to noise and other pollution sources (airport, traffic, industrial)” should be considered when evaluating an existing or potential school site. It goes on to recommend that “location of schools near electric power transmission lines or other environmental hazards should be avoided.” Every new data center since 2022 has required a new substation and high-voltage transmission lines.
No proven economic benefit. Loudoun county suffered a $60 million budget shortfall because the data centers did not bring in the projected revenue. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, this data center can qualify for uncapped millions of dollars each year in tax exemptions. Podcast at 24:45 on Prince William County’s data center revenue problems helps explain why data centers can pay a depreciated tax, while actually replacing component parts to extend the life. Supervisor Smith commented that the real estate tax for such a large buildings would benefit the county, implying size is more important than any other negative impacts to nearby businesses, residents and the environment. DCNewsNow reports on the volatility of data center revenue.
Data Center reap millions in tax exemptions.Virginia offers uncapped millions in tax exemptions for data centers and refuse to pay for their own electrical infrastucture (substations and transmission lines) that they alone require.
New electrical substation required for data center means more land and higher electricity bills. Data Center requiring a new substation, violates the Appendix 12 of the Comprehensive Plan “This guidance provides an option for higher intensity, while ensuring proposals are compatible with surrounding uses and can be supported by existing infrastructure.” A new substation’s impacts include:
more nearby acres of land will be needed to build the substation and miles of land will need to be cleared to run the huge (100 to 150-foot) electrical transmission poles but the county is not considering this as part of the rezoning. The enormous power needs are unsustainable.
Dominion Energy has indicated that the increased demand for electricity (that they currently do not have the infrastructure to support) is primarily driven by data centers, resulting in their continued reliance on fossil fuels for at least 15 more years and rate increases will be spread among Virginia Rate payers (includes NOVEC as they are part of the PJM eastern region as is Dominion).
Vertical data centers, Cryptocurrency and AI consume enormous amounts of energy. “AI is inherently ravenous for electricity.” “the amount of electricity required to power the world’s data centers could jump by 50% by 2027, thanks to AI alone.”. "Digiconomist currently estimates that Bitcoin consumes 126TWh of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to the Arab Emirates." Such consumption without considering the impacts prior to data center application approvals conflicts with the Countywide Strategic Plan that “All people live in a healthy sustainable environment” through “Supporting Sound Environmental Policy and Practices”.
As confirmed by the County, there is no "express prohibition, in the Zoning Ordinance or elsewhere, on requesting information about energy usage". But like building size, it could be used to trigger a Special Exception if the county is unwilling to require Special Exception for all data centers. Electricity is a better measure because what could fit into 80,000 SF with AI would need 60 MW versus 12 MW of electricity - "The power consumption goes from 500 watts to 700 watts for a general enterprise-class server to between 2,500 watts and 4,500 watts for a single AI training node.".
Chantilly Mega Data Center Archive
The county has failed to perform and economic impact study to prove that there will be a benefit to the county over the auto dealership that the property is currently zoned for. Visit https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/top-data-center-markets/ to understand a bit more about the electricity concerns. It has a very eye-opening map.
Key Points
No proven economic benefit.
Pressure to rezone only benefits the owner – County not waiting for year-end data center report.
New electrical substation required for data center means more land and higher electricity bills.
Vertical data centers, Cryptocurrency and AI consume enormous amounts of energy
Details
No proven economic benefit. Loudoun county suffered a $60 million budget shortfall because the data centers did not bring in the projected revenue. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, this data center can qualify for uncapped millions of dollars each year in tax exemptions. Podcast at 24:45 on Prince William County’s data center revenue problems helps explain why data centers can pay a depreciated tax, while actually replacing component parts to extend the life. Supervisor Smith commented that the real estate tax for such a large building would benefit the county, implying size is more important than any other negative impacts to nearby businesses, residents and the environment. DCNewsNow reports on the volatility of data center revenue.
Pressure to rezone only benefits the owner – County not waiting for year-end data center report. After a pre-consultation with County staff last year, 2022, the applicant was incentivized to purchase the property for $10 million – more than twice what it sold for the year before. The applicant is taking advantage of the data center boom to pressure the County to rezone so they can flip the property within a year to reap tens of millions in profit. Given the proposed Data Center is unprecedented in the County, the County should wait for the Board of Supervisors directed 2023 year-end report on the impacts of data centers and the process for properly locating them to allow the County to make a more informed decision.
New electrical substation required for data center means more land and higher electricity bills. The data center requires a new substation be built, which violates the Appendix 12 of the Comprehensive Plan “This guidance provides an option for higher intensity, while ensuring proposals are compatible with surrounding uses and can be supported by existing infrastructure.” A new substation’s impacts include:
more nearby acres of land will be needed to build the substation and miles of land will need to be cleared to run the huge (100 to 150-foot) electrical transmission poles but the county is nor considering this as part of the rezoning. The enormous power needs are unsustainable.
Dominion Energy has indicated that the increased demand for electricity (that they currently do not have the infrastructure to support) is primarily driven by data centers, resulting in their continued reliance on fossil fuels for at least 15 more years and rate increases will be spread among Virginia Rate payers (includes NOVEC as they are part of the PJM eastern region as is Dominion).
Vertical data centers, Cryptocurrency and AI consume enormous amounts of energy. “AI is inherently ravenous for electricity.” “the amount of electricity required to power the world’s data centers could jump by 50% by 2027, thanks to AI alone.”. "Digiconomist currently estimates that Bitcoin consumes 126TWh of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to the Arab Emirates." Such consumption without considering the impacts prior to data center application approvals conflicts with the Countywide Strategic Plan that “All people live in a healthy sustainable environment” through “Supporting Sound Environmental Policy and Practices”