Dear Supporter,
Next Tuesday, Mar. 18, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors plans a major vote on its proposed Phase One amendments to the comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance to better manage data center development in the county. This follows the public hearing I emailed you about last month.
We Support Most of The Proposed Changes
Most of the proposed changes would reduce the negative impacts new data centers will have on residents, provide more oversight and increase transparency. The proposed changes would:
- Require a special exception permit for all data center applications to eliminate future administrative (by-right) applications – this will allow the Board to review all proposals and assess their impacts with the benefit of public input;
- Give data center applicants a clear understanding where development may be acceptable going forward.
But We’re Concerned About Proposed Exemptions
Though the majority of the Board appears ready to pass the Phase One changes as initially proposed, the Chamber of Commerce and data center developers have pushed back and asked for a variety of exceptions. Most notably, they’ve lobbied for:
- Grandfathering the roughly 40 data center applications that were filed before Feb. 12.
Exempting 40 data centers from the proposed changes that require Board review and public input would be a massive detriment to the county’s ability to get data center growth under control. Not only would the 40 data centers have local land use impacts, they would demand about 4 gigawatts of additional power, which will likely require more transmission lines and substations to be built (further impacting communities and natural resources).
For context, if all 117 of the data center proposals in the pipeline in Loudoun County were to be built, we estimate that it could drive the energy demand up to around 11 gigawatts of additional power. So exempting 40 data centers from review would be a significant portion—36%—of the total proposals.
The bigger picture is that the cost of all data center-driven electricity infrastructure continues to be borne by all ratepayers through our electric bills.
We are urging the Board of Supervisors to adopt its originally planned changes without exceptions in order to fulfill its own goals to better manage and reduce the impacts to residents’ quality of life.
Urge the Board to Protect Loudoun Residents and Pass the Proposed Changes Without Exceptions
Board of Supervisors Meeting
Tuesday, Mar. 18 @ 6 p.m.
County Building
1 Harrison St., Leesburg
We hope you’ll join us in supporting the proposed comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance amendments (without exceptions) in person at the Board meeting next Tuesday at 6 p.m. You can sign up to speak or just attend in support.
Pre-meeting rally at 5:30 p.m.: We hope you’ll join us for a rally with other Loudoun organizations and residents outside in the courtyard of the County Building at 5:30 p.m. before heading into the meeting. Folks are encouraged to wear blue!
If you can’t attend or don’t want to speak at the meeting, I encourage you to submit your comments in writing to bos@loudoun.gov or use our advocacy campaign (if you haven’t already).
Compounding Impacts
As of November 2024, Loudoun has approved 200 data centers, with another 117 in the pipeline (with and without site plans). That’s not counting other proposals in the works. Dominion Energy says it cannot meet the energy demands of data centers already on the ground with the currently available power supply and infrastructure.
To meet the current demand, Dominion has indicated it will need to build a lot of new transmission lines and substations including the list below.
*Currently approved or in the approvaA new 500/230 kV line on Rt. 7 between Aspen and Golden substations;
- A new 500/230 kV line between the Golden and Mars substations;
- Expanded main transmission lines that runs north/south east of Leesburg (including the relocated MARL line);
- A new 765 kV line that cuts across northwestern Loudoun County.l process:
*Additional projects that Dominion is developing:
- A new power line south and generally parallel to Rt. 7 west beyond Belmont Ridge Rd. to Crosstrail Blvd;
- Another power line extending eastward toward Sterling beyond Loudoun County Pkwy;
- 50 more substations in eastern Loudoun County.
Note that the Board has initiated a separate change to the Comprehensive Plan about power line siting and is creating a policy to prioritize the use of existing corridors [see county staff report from Dec. 3, 2024 – 20 mb download]. But that policy change will not guarantee that only existing corridors will be used for new lines or eliminate any of the associated land use impacts to residents.
Climate and Air Quality Impacts:
We have reviewed information presented to the Board of Supervisors in 2021 that indicates that while regional greenhouse gas emissions went down between 2005 and 2018, Loudoun’s went up in the same timeframe.
Subsequently, in the County Energy Strategy, data shows that as of 2020, 52% of Loudoun’s greenhouse gas emissions came from commercial buildings – and this doesn’t take into account the data center development that has exploded in the last five years (we don’t have the current figures).
We recently came across a study that models the health impacts of diesel emissions from data centers at the county level, which are not just alarming for Loudoun County but the entire DMV region. It shows significant increases in air pollution not only in Loudoun but also even worse impacts in Montgomery, Fairfax, Prince Georges, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. due to wind patterns and higher population exposure. The study does not provide the fine grain, street level impacts that are also of concern in Loudoun County and may have even greater impacts on residents due to the concentration of data centers in close proximity.
This study is based on only 10% of the emissions permitted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Loudoun County data centers currently have over 5,000 diesel generators, each the size of a rail car, which are currently used for emergency backup power. What’s concerning is that the increase in diesel emissions is primarily caused by data centers routinely testing their generators. As more data centers are built, those emissions will increase. And while emergencies are currently rare, there is concern that the increasing strain on the grid might also increase the need to tap these generators as a source of power.
Learn more about the study by watching the webinar that our partners at Nature Forward recently hosted with one of the authors of the paper.
The people most affected by poor air quality and climate induced health impacts are infants, children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, seniors, people with chronic medical conditions, and the socially vulnerable.
Charged with protecting the health, safety, and welfare of county residents, the Board must do all it can to oversee and demand that data center developers act responsibly to protect their neighbors, the trades that construct their buildings and the staff that will ultimately operate the data centers. Every proposed data center application that is improved or denied due to better Board oversight will benefit residents now and in the future.
I hope you can join us (wear blue!) for a rally next Wednesday, Mar. 18 at 5:30 p.m. before the Board meeting and then come inside and urge the Supervisors to adopt their data center controls without exceptions. And if you can’t make it, please send your comments to the Board at bos@loudoun.gov or use our advocacy campaign (if you haven’t already).
Let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Gem Bingol
Senior Land Use Field Representative
Loudoun County
gbingol@pecva.org
540-347-2334 x7046
