Data Centers

Large-scale data center development, energy demand, and community impact.

County-by-county source verification is underway.

At a glance

Understand the issue before diving into the records.

What this is

Data centers are large facilities that house computing equipment. Projects can involve major electricity demand, cooling systems, water use, new substations or transmission work, tax agreements, road improvements, zoning decisions, and utility or environmental review.

Why it matters

These projects can bring investment and jobs, but they can also affect electric infrastructure, water resources, land use, public finances, traffic, noise, and nearby communities. Residents deserve to know what is actually proposed, who is making decisions, what public support is involved, and which claims are confirmed by source records.

What we track

Documented project location, company or developer, and current status
Planning, zoning, permitting, utility, environmental, and regulatory review
Electricity, transmission, generation, water, sewer, road, and other infrastructure connections
Tax incentives, development agreements, public funding, and disclosed project costs
Public meetings, hearings, source documents, community reports, and verification dates

Where this is happening

Documented data-center projects and related activity across West Virginia.

Every marker and card comes only from verified, published records in the canonical issue activity table. Counties without a verified record are not marked.

Activity status

Active
Approved
Proposed
Under review
Paused
Ended
Status unclear

Evidence source

Jurisdiction-level, approximate placement

Dashed markers sit on an approximate county or municipality centroid and do not represent an exact location.

Verification underway

No records found yet.

This does not mean nothing is happening. It means no record has completed source review and publication, and no government or news evidence has been matched to a West Virginia county yet. This section populates automatically as records are approved.

Who has authority?

Know who can make the decision.

Select a county — or any marker or activity card above — and each card opens that county’s real section.

Choose a county.

Choose a county to see the commissions, councils, law-enforcement agencies, and state representatives connected to that community.

County

Community Resources

Verified help related to Data Centers.

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What you can do

Read the underlying planning, permit, utility, or development documents
Attend local hearings and public meetings before major decisions are final
Ask officials to identify infrastructure costs, incentives, water needs, and power commitments
Request records when project details or agreements are not publicly available
Submit a source-backed project update or missing public record to WVFC

Contact local officials Report a missing source to WVFC

State law

HB 2014 changed who gets to say yes or no.

West Virginia's 2025 Power Generation and Consumption Act created certified microgrid and high-impact data-center programs. The enacted law expressly prohibits local jurisdictions from regulating certified microgrid districts and certified high-impact data centers, shifting major siting and regulatory authority to the state.

WVFC will track later rules, amendments, court decisions, agency actions, and legislative changes here so this explanation does not freeze in 2025.

Read the enrolled law

Live source check

Updates that refresh automatically.

This source layer checks the Legislature, the Governor's office, and statewide news coverage on a scheduled refresh. Project markers remain verification-gated and are not created from headlines alone.

Statewide coverage

Recent West Virginia data-center news.

Headlines are a discovery layer, not verification. WVFC uses source documents and reviewed records before changing a project's status on the map.

Checking current coverage…