Several pieces of legislation have been introduced to reform data center development and protect Virginia ratepayers.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mike Doble, The Piedmont Environmental Council
[email protected]; 703-579-7963

Warrenton, Va. (January 14, 2025) – The Virginia General Assembly has an urgent responsibility to address the accelerating and uncontrolled growth of data centers in the Commonwealth to mitigate the detrimental impact of data centers on Virginia’s energy grid, natural resources and communities. 

Today, Senator Russet Perry, with a bipartisan group of supporting legislators, hosted a press conference to announce legislation toward meeting that responsibility. 

These bills fall into four main pillars of reform the Piedmont Environmental Council is advocating for to ensure more responsible data center development:

• Enhanced transparency: Requiring local disclosure and statewide reporting on data center energy use, water consumption and emissions.
• State oversight: Establishing state-level regulatory review by the State Corporation Commission to evaluate regional impacts.
• Ratepayer protection: Safeguarding Virginia’s residents and other businesses from subsidizing the billions of dollars of infrastructure data centers require. 
• Incentivization of sustainability: Connecting sales and use tax exemption for data center purchases to higher clean energy and efficiency standards. 

“Now is the time for action. Without state oversight and increased local disclosures, we are headed for a catastrophic collision of unprecedented energy demand and a shortage of generation capacity,” said Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council. “Dominion is signing contracts for power it does not have and does not have a realistic plan for providing. Right now, our state’s leaders are playing a game of chicken with our energy grid.”

In 2024, the General Assembly failed to vote on any of 17 data center reform bills introduced. Since then, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, or JLARC, published the results of its year-long study and acknowledged the ‘unprecedented’ energy demand. The JLARC background report produced by consulting firm Energy+Environmental Economics confirms that unconstrained development of data centers could result in over 60 gigawatts (GW) of peak demand by 2050, which is nearly three times Virginia’s current peak load of 22GW. Data center development is responsible for almost all of the projected increase in the state’s energy demand. 

To meet the increased demand, and Virginia’s clean energy goals, the report states that by 2050 Virginia will need to build 90GW of solar and 11GW of offshore wind, as well as a 9GW transmission expansion to connect those resources to demand. At 10,000 acres per gigawatt, that would require close to 900,000 acres of solar to power data centers alone. That acreage is the equivalent of 60 Manhattans or 681,000 football fields, and it’s a five-fold increase over what the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) requires (16.1GW), just to meet one industry’s needs. 

“The forecasted numbers are existential and speak for themselves. No matter the power generation mix in the future, the interstate impacts of the scale of expansion needed to meet data center demand will have detrimental impacts on our communities, land, water, air quality and clean energy goals,” Miller said. “The legislation we’re advocating for isn’t about stopping data center development; it’s about planning, solving for, and mitigating the crisis we know is coming.”

Virginia is already home to more data centers than anywhere in the world, with 470 data centers across the state and another 150 projects in the pipeline. Unless the General Assembly takes action, Virginia will continue to sacrifice its economic and environmental future to the five wealthiest tech companies in the world. The lack of state-level oversight and transparency has created an imminent energy crisis that could stress the electric grid, cause blackouts, double or triple ratepayer bills, pollute our air and deplete our natural resources.

Our state deserves better. With the introduction of this legislation, the General Assembly can take immediate action to protect all Virginians and ensure we are building for a smarter digital future together.

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The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) works to protect and restore the lands and waters of the Virginia Piedmont, while building stronger, more sustainable communities. Founded in 1972, PEC is a locally based, community-supported 501(c)3 nonprofit and accredited land trust. At the core of PEC’s approach is a focus on educating, engaging and empowering people to effect positive change in their communities.