Organizers with Data Center Defiance Central Virginia hand out pamphlets prior to a community event hosted by Google July 16 at Cosby High School in Chesterfield. (Photo by Scott Bass)
Hopelessly divided electorate? Not when it comes to data centers.
The current debate surrounding the sprawling facilities, which house thousands of computer servers to support the advancement of artificial intelligence, is gripping the country. Some dislike them for their negative environmental impact — they consume massive amounts of energy and water, and create noise pollution — and others for their tendency to spike utility bills and spoil neighborhood character. Either way, polls show rising numbers of Americans want no part of what are known as “hyperscale data centers.”
Virginia is ground zero: home to the largest collection of data centers on the planet. According to Data Center Map, a global repository for tracking their development, there are currently 651 data centers in the commonwealth, with the majority situated in Northern Virginia. In the Richmond region, there are 155 data centers and more on the horizon. Virginia also houses 35% — nearly 150 — of all known hyperscale data centers in the world, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
While the facilities are huge tax-revenue generators for localities and advances in AI appear to be propping up the U.S. economy, the anger over “hyperscalers” runs deep.
Mary Finley-Brook, professor of geography, sustainability, environment and global studies at the University of Richmond (Photo by Jay Paul)
Richmond magazine caught up with Mary Finley-Brook, a professor of geography, sustainability, environment and global studies at the University of Richmond, to break down the issues surrounding data centers. Finley-Brook has served on review panels for the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, and is the co-author of “Climate Crisis, Energy Violence: Mapping Fossil Energy’s Enduring Grasp on Our Precarious Future.”
Richmond magazine: People may not know that data centers have been around for years in one form or another and that there are different types — not just the kinds we’re hearing about in the news right now. Can you break this down?
Mary Finley-Brook: Historically, we’ve had smaller data centers for banking, for medical records — that type of thing. What we have today are called hyperscalers. These are the large, AI-ready or AI-compatible data centers. They use a lot more water; they use a lot more energy. ... There’s up to 135 proposed data centers in the Richmond area. It goes up every time I look. ... We have Goochland, we have Hanover, we have all these other jurisdictions that are also building hyperscale data centers. Henrico is by far the greatest.
The vast majority of the new permits in the Richmond area are hyperscale. The majority of sites in the Richmond area are being built for AI use; it can be confirmed by looking at the websites of these companies — QTS, Chirisa, Meta, Google, Iron Mountain. These companies don’t mess around with small-scale data centers currently, as their expansion needs are so great. Most new data center campuses have a minimum of three hyperscale data centers.
At the University of Richmond, we are in the process of mapping and creating a dashboard of the 100-plus Richmond area sites by parcel so we can produce the first factual, geo-referenced accounts.
RM: A recent poll released by Virginia Commonwealth University found 78% of Virginians think data centers should pay additional fees and 70% oppose state tax incentives. The New York Times recently reported that roughly 7 in 10 Americans now oppose the construction of local data centers to power artificial intelligence. In a poll last fall, people were almost evenly split. How did data centers become public enemy No. 1 so quickly?
Finley-Brook: For more than a decade, large-scale AI developers in the IT industry were able to maintain under wraps the specifics of water use. [Hyperscale data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.] The way they’ve done that is through nondisclosure agreements. People within the industry were not allowed to speak openly; they were very censored. And so, most of our numbers on the amount of water and energy have been coming out because of Freedom of Information Act requests. We’re in that situation now in Virginia, where we’re being told we’ll get the numbers on the operational use of water and energy after these data centers are operational.
The other piece is lived experience. Communities have lived experience where their wells have gone dry, where they have not had access to water or their water has been polluted [due to data center usage]. The sound levels are also unbearable.
So, the upsurge in people’s opposition has to do with both. They’re starting to get clear information about just how much water data centers use. ... Now these things are up and running, and people are living with the consequences — and that’s why you see so much opposition.
In the Richmond area, there’s a new coalition called Data Center Defiance. It is people who are directly impacted by data centers. The interesting thing is, it is very much a bipartisan coalition. There is definitely collaboration among people who would probably identify themselves as conservatives and people who would probably identify themselves as progressives or liberals. I have not seen that on a lot of issues.
RM: Are there other aspects of powering these centers that maybe people aren’t hearing about, such as the need for back-up generators, which are known to produce high levels of greenhouse gas emissions?
Finley-Brook: Just so you understand, when we’re talking about a hyperscaler, it typically has 50 massive diesel generators. We’re not talking about a generator or two. In Chesterfield, where they’re coming in to do those hyperscale campuses [for Google’s three planned data center projects], they’re expecting 50 generators per site.
What we’re able to see through research is, when those diesel generators are on, the amount of air pollution that’s felt locally would be the same as if you lived next to a coal or a gas plant. The noise is very high, as well. [Legislation passed during this year’s General Assembly session targets] not only the noises coming out of those generators, but the pollution coming out of those generators.
RM: Are there any benefits to having data centers in the Richmond region?
Finley-Brook: All the benefits have trade-offs and downsides. Being a technology hub has been beneficial to the Richmond area. Under the Biden administration, we got named as a technology hub and linked in some ways to pharmaceuticals, which is another industry that we’re very supportive of in Virginia. Our being the data center capital of the world has definitely kind of put us out there.
RM: What about data centers’ cost to taxpayers, tax incentives and promises of local jobs?
Finley-Brook: The long-term jobs are 50 or less. [According to the Hamm Institute for American Energy at Oklahoma State University, hyperscale data centers can operate with as few as 25 to 30 workers.] ... They’re not local people. They tend to be people who are recruited to do this work, and so the job numbers are certainly something to look at.
I think people need to understand the extent to which these businesses are being subsidized by all of us. Many of us know that billions of dollars have been given from the state of Virginia, because that was very controversial this year. [Since 2010, the state has exempted data center equipment from sales taxes, amounting to $1.9 billion in lost tax revenue in fiscal year 2025.]
Every time we offer incentives to these corporations, that money could have been here helping local communities. When the corporations are buying land, I have evidence that, many times it is passing through the local government and they are actually selling it to the developers for a lower price. This has certainly happened in Chesterfield.
Henrico actually has a [specific property] tax rate for data centers. It’s definitely under the state average, but it’s $2.60 per $100 of assessed value of [computers and other equipment]. Chesterfield’s is 24 cents per $100 for 30 years, and they just signed it. So, Chesterfield really has done something that is remarkably low and stands out as the lowest in the state of Virginia. So that is saying to Google: Come abuse us.
RM: What else do we need to know about data centers?
Finley-Brook: One of the things that I’m most concerned about in Varina is what we call a “toxic hotspot.” Not only do you have White Oak Technology Park, now there’s the White Oak 2 expansion. [Varina, a majority Black community, houses dozens of data centers in and around White Oak]. Back it out three to five miles and ask, “What other toxic exposure is this historically Black community being exposed to?”
Go across the boundary to Chesterfield, and you’d get [Dominion Energy’s] coal plant that had been there for 80 years and now the proposed gas plant. And then on that side of the river, you have Chirisa Technology Park [off Interstate 295 in Chester], which is six to eight hyperscale data centers.
So if you make a circle around that, why is that area being cited, historically and to this day, for unacceptable levels of pollution? And whether it is the Henrico government or whether it’s the Virginia state government and Department of Environmental Quality, they have not protected people in that area. The amount of exposures and the toxicity of the exposures in that area is beyond the pale.
When you get clusters like that, then corporations are able to say, “Well, it’s industrial. This is zoned correctly. We’re putting industry with industry.” But there was never an environmental justice assessment done for the vulnerabilities of those populations.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
