RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — With Google announcing a $1 billion investment to expand three data centers in northern Virginia, the Commonwealth continues to solidify itself as the data center capital of the world.
Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, but that doesn’t come without controversy. Opponents of data centers say they’re bad for the environment and strain the state’s electric grid.
“If we don’t do anything about putting in safeguards, it’s going to require 40% of all Dominion’s power going to go to data centers.” Tim Cywinski from the Sierra Club told 8News.
Dominion Energy says data centers, which are physical buildings that store digital data, account for about 20% of the company’s electricity sales in Virginia. Dominion adds that they expect data centers’ energy usage to quadruple by 2040. Cywinski says that’s bad for the environment and your wallet.
“That’s power that should be going to families, but it’s exclusively needed for data centers and in order to power them, we are going to have to build new fossil fuel plants, new energy plants that are going to get rolled into our electric bills,” Cywinski said.
However, advocates like Governor Glenn Youngkin, who spoke at Google’s recent announcement, says data centers also have benefits.
“$2.2 billion of wages are paid to Virginians with our data center ecosystem,” said Youngkin.
Youngkin adds that Virginia’s current data centers have brought in $1 billion in tax revenue.
“That funds an immense investment in schools, public services and social services,” Youngkin explained.
Dominion says that, in order to prepare for the increased electricity need, the company is building new plants harnessing the power of offshore wind, solar and natural gas.
