If he wanted to do facts why not cite the regulator for the Virginia grid?
Oh…
“Monitoring Analytics, the federally mandated independent watchdog that keeps an eye on the critical PJM Interconnection that distributes power around the U.S., said in a new report [PDF] that a massive 75.5% increase in power costs in the largest region of the U.S. has been directly caused by data centers”
Where is the link to your quote? Attribution? I asked Ai to find it and there was no answer. Throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks, is no way to determine if it is edible.
Did you not read that PJM stated in legislative testimony that Only 4% of all electricity sold by them is to data centers. Basically, PJM is fishing for government subsidies because the Green Energy Fraud has dried up. They falsely prophesy a jump to 12% use in the future and want data centers to provide energy resources in advance. The Green Energy Fraud caught PMJ with its pants down and their 1,000 page report is a way to cover up their lack of real energy policy that makes sense. Their customers are receiving the brunt of their terrible energy production strategy. Windmills and solar panels are not efficient.
Alexander, I applaud your attempt to introduce the real facts and receipts to the perpetually hoodwinked, but I fear they are beyond even your superhuman abilities. Facts and data are not enough for them. They are too accustomed to believing all that MSM prints, and following any shiny object dangled in front of them by the Communist Chinese bots and their allies who want the US to fall behind in every way on the world stage.
And BTW, thank you for another excellent, fact-based article on this important subject. I always look forward to reading what you publish.
Virginia already ran the experiment while everyone else was still commissioning models. Hundreds of data centers arrived, stayed, consumed power, paid taxes, and forced utilities to solve water and transmission problems in the real world. The predicted wasteland never appeared. Loudoun built reclaimed-water lines, its tax base exploded, and its property-tax rate fell while the schools remained funded. Virginia has now created a separate utility class requiring enormous users to carry the infrastructure costs they generate. That is governance. Build the power, meter the water, assign the costs, and collect the revenue. Every American data-center moratorium hands China time, compute, and strategic advantage. The canary is singing because it survived.
I live in Virginia. Our state is sadly now led by dimwitted leadership that is Luddite, woke, Pro illegal immigrant and weak on crime. That said, it hasn’t been that way until recently.
As for Data centers, Virginia has been a major beneficiary. New centers are Closed loop in terms of water, additive to the power grid and less obtrusive than large regional warehouses. They are already too incredibly positive in terms of local revenue. Loudon County is an example.
Beyond being the wealthiest county in both Virginia and the United States by median household income (topping roughly $175,000 to $181,000), Loudoun County’s tax base is heavily supported by commercial tech infrastructure.
Data centers in Loudoun bring in $1.1 to $1.2+ billion annually, making up 38% of the county’s General Fund (and roughly 21% to 23% of its total $5.4B all-funds appropriated budget). Combined across physical real estate and the hardware inside, the industry generates nearly 50% of all local property tax collections.
The revenue mechanics and fiscal impact break down as follows:
* Where the $1.2B comes from: The lion’s share—roughly $850 million to over $1 billion annually—is derived from the local tangible personal property tax on computer equipment (servers and networking gear), supercharged by continuous 3- to 5-year hardware refresh cycles. Commercial real estate taxes on the land and physical shells generate the remaining $150+ million.
* The ROI: Loudoun fiscal models estimate the county collects roughly $26 in tax revenue for every $1 in public services consumed by data centers, given they demand almost no public school capacity, recreation facilities, or residential social infrastructure.
* The residential impact: This commercial windfall is what allowed Loudoun to slash its baseline residential real estate tax rate from $1.145 per $100 of assessed value down to $0.805, essentially letting hyperscaler capex subsidize the homeowner tax base.
Data centers are not all bad. At least to the residents in the wealthiest county in the country.
You know something was rotten in Denmark when you saw all the people getting on her soapboxes against those data centers. Man alive they probably would’ve been against the railroad going across the country. This is one of the most historically FORWARD initiatives in decades.
Bottom line with this issue, as with most these days, once something is labeled “bad” and the Piper keeps a piping that tune, too many people nowadays don’t care about the facts, just the label. “Jews bad”, “White House renovations bad”, “deportations bad”, etc. etc., just because Trump is in favor of it.
If a Democrat were doing any of these things the label would simply be changed to “good”.
The problem with the AI/ data centers issue is that people on the right are just as wary as those on the Left, but for more logical reasons.
I think it would behoove Trump to address the nation on this subject, as it is a National Security imperative that we are able to compete formidably in this arena. He needs to layout the what, why and wherefore’s as to our push to develop this technology we need to give us the necessary advantage in the future of war fighting and global economic competition and security.
He also needs to have a serious sit down with the founders and makers working on this technology and instruct them how to work better with states to make data centers more of a benefit to those communities than a threat. They need to carry MUCH more of the burden in infrastructure and costs than they currently seem willing to do. They also need to seriously up their PR game to show more how AI will benefit the individual citizen in their everyday lives, as so far, all they keep telling us is how it’s going to eliminate jobs and pretty much take over the world. That’s not a very compelling sales pitch.
Everybody, from the President on down, needs to take a beat, and quiet all the rumors and lies, and give the people more information they need to understand what this all means to each of them, and where it is likely to take us.
As Edward Deming famously said, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
So here are some relevant figures that help illustrate the real water consumption of AI data centres.
According to data from EUDCA (the European Data Centre Association), a typical American golf course consumes around 432,000 cubic meters of water per year?
By contrast, an entire mid‑sized data centre (with a power capacity between 1 and 5 MW) uses about 417,000 cubic meters of water annually (older cooling technology), which is roughly equivalent to the consumption of about 1,000 households.
The EUDCA report offers plenty of striking insights and is genuinely worth a read.
Guess I'm still missing something. Why does Virginia need 385 data centers? What is that in digital capacity or whatever data is measured in. It's like crypto currency to me, something you never see, assume it exists. and take someones word for the fact you actually own it.
I think your next article should be on the energy supply problems. Maryland should be similar to Virginia, but we have supply problems from a lack of energy production plants, and limited distribution infrastructure. Still, the energy producers are getting record profits while consumers are stuck with increasing rates. America in general has an energy plant production problem. Not enough, and too much NIMBY.
The pipe dream of solar and wind seems to plague Maryland. “Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2031 and establishes 2045 as the state’s goal for becoming carbon neutral. The goal for greenhouse gas emission reduction, which was increased from 40% of 2006 levels, became part of Maryland’s Climate Pollution Reduction Plan, passed by Governor Moore in 2025.” Policy is everything. Maryland is following in the footsteps of California. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/08/25/maryland-signs-agreement-for-power-produced-on-reclaimed-coal-mine/
The regulator for PJM which is the power grid Virginia is located in said the following:
“PJM’s own federally mandated market monitor, which found data centers caused 63% of the capacity price increase and called the impact “not reversible.” Capacity prices 10x’d, ratepayers are paying $1.4 billion more a year starting this month.”
Alexander, as a TX Resident, I will guarantee that withdrawing an acre-inch from a VA water source to initially fill up the cooling system is a much smaller portion of the yearly rain fall or the total available water source than the High Plains of TX. Your analysis leaves that out.
I had the same thought reading this piece. It seems like there will be areas more suitable due to consistency of water supply. While largely unpopulated areas like West Texas, where utility infrastructure is sorely needed seem idea in those respects, consistent drought may make them unsuitable. Water supply is so “front of mind” throughout Texas, it seems like many data center developers would look for (literally) greener pastures. There may be areas along the Gulf Coast that are suitable.
I’d be interested what a trusted source like Alex knows about geographic conditions that make an area more suitable for this type of industry. For example, would areas with a high water table like the Florida Everglades, or areas that get a lot of rain like Washington State, the Tennessee or Ohio Valleys be more considered more suitable. What about low population, consistently cool areas with high snow melt like Alaska? Also, do the specific needs of this industry necessitate data centers in a diffuse network or could the need be served by several high density areas like Northern Virginia?
There is nothing like facts to mess with the complainers.
If he wanted to do facts why not cite the regulator for the Virginia grid?
Oh…
“Monitoring Analytics, the federally mandated independent watchdog that keeps an eye on the critical PJM Interconnection that distributes power around the U.S., said in a new report [PDF] that a massive 75.5% increase in power costs in the largest region of the U.S. has been directly caused by data centers”
Where is the link to your quote? Attribution? I asked Ai to find it and there was no answer. Throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks, is no way to determine if it is edible.
Here you go. I’m not here to hide from facts.
Sorry to disappoint you.
https://www.monitoringanalytics.com/reports/PJM_State_of_the_Market/2026/2026q1-som-pjm.pdf
I try to be honest. Unlike Alexander here
It takes a bit but here it is….
https://gprivate.com/6m1uh
Did you not read that PJM stated in legislative testimony that Only 4% of all electricity sold by them is to data centers. Basically, PJM is fishing for government subsidies because the Green Energy Fraud has dried up. They falsely prophesy a jump to 12% use in the future and want data centers to provide energy resources in advance. The Green Energy Fraud caught PMJ with its pants down and their 1,000 page report is a way to cover up their lack of real energy policy that makes sense. Their customers are receiving the brunt of their terrible energy production strategy. Windmills and solar panels are not efficient.
Did you not read how the power market functions?
Alexander, I applaud your attempt to introduce the real facts and receipts to the perpetually hoodwinked, but I fear they are beyond even your superhuman abilities. Facts and data are not enough for them. They are too accustomed to believing all that MSM prints, and following any shiny object dangled in front of them by the Communist Chinese bots and their allies who want the US to fall behind in every way on the world stage.
And BTW, thank you for another excellent, fact-based article on this important subject. I always look forward to reading what you publish.
Virginia already ran the experiment while everyone else was still commissioning models. Hundreds of data centers arrived, stayed, consumed power, paid taxes, and forced utilities to solve water and transmission problems in the real world. The predicted wasteland never appeared. Loudoun built reclaimed-water lines, its tax base exploded, and its property-tax rate fell while the schools remained funded. Virginia has now created a separate utility class requiring enormous users to carry the infrastructure costs they generate. That is governance. Build the power, meter the water, assign the costs, and collect the revenue. Every American data-center moratorium hands China time, compute, and strategic advantage. The canary is singing because it survived.
This is excellent proof needed to ease the worry of normal citizens about these centers. We all should repost this everywhere!
I live in Virginia. Our state is sadly now led by dimwitted leadership that is Luddite, woke, Pro illegal immigrant and weak on crime. That said, it hasn’t been that way until recently.
As for Data centers, Virginia has been a major beneficiary. New centers are Closed loop in terms of water, additive to the power grid and less obtrusive than large regional warehouses. They are already too incredibly positive in terms of local revenue. Loudon County is an example.
Beyond being the wealthiest county in both Virginia and the United States by median household income (topping roughly $175,000 to $181,000), Loudoun County’s tax base is heavily supported by commercial tech infrastructure.
Data centers in Loudoun bring in $1.1 to $1.2+ billion annually, making up 38% of the county’s General Fund (and roughly 21% to 23% of its total $5.4B all-funds appropriated budget). Combined across physical real estate and the hardware inside, the industry generates nearly 50% of all local property tax collections.
The revenue mechanics and fiscal impact break down as follows:
* Where the $1.2B comes from: The lion’s share—roughly $850 million to over $1 billion annually—is derived from the local tangible personal property tax on computer equipment (servers and networking gear), supercharged by continuous 3- to 5-year hardware refresh cycles. Commercial real estate taxes on the land and physical shells generate the remaining $150+ million.
* The ROI: Loudoun fiscal models estimate the county collects roughly $26 in tax revenue for every $1 in public services consumed by data centers, given they demand almost no public school capacity, recreation facilities, or residential social infrastructure.
* The residential impact: This commercial windfall is what allowed Loudoun to slash its baseline residential real estate tax rate from $1.145 per $100 of assessed value down to $0.805, essentially letting hyperscaler capex subsidize the homeowner tax base.
Data centers are not all bad. At least to the residents in the wealthiest county in the country.
Thanks for the real world clarity. These facts need to be disseminated to the 49 remaining states struggling with their analysis of this issue.
You know something was rotten in Denmark when you saw all the people getting on her soapboxes against those data centers. Man alive they probably would’ve been against the railroad going across the country. This is one of the most historically FORWARD initiatives in decades.
Bottom line with this issue, as with most these days, once something is labeled “bad” and the Piper keeps a piping that tune, too many people nowadays don’t care about the facts, just the label. “Jews bad”, “White House renovations bad”, “deportations bad”, etc. etc., just because Trump is in favor of it.
If a Democrat were doing any of these things the label would simply be changed to “good”.
The problem with the AI/ data centers issue is that people on the right are just as wary as those on the Left, but for more logical reasons.
I think it would behoove Trump to address the nation on this subject, as it is a National Security imperative that we are able to compete formidably in this arena. He needs to layout the what, why and wherefore’s as to our push to develop this technology we need to give us the necessary advantage in the future of war fighting and global economic competition and security.
He also needs to have a serious sit down with the founders and makers working on this technology and instruct them how to work better with states to make data centers more of a benefit to those communities than a threat. They need to carry MUCH more of the burden in infrastructure and costs than they currently seem willing to do. They also need to seriously up their PR game to show more how AI will benefit the individual citizen in their everyday lives, as so far, all they keep telling us is how it’s going to eliminate jobs and pretty much take over the world. That’s not a very compelling sales pitch.
Everybody, from the President on down, needs to take a beat, and quiet all the rumors and lies, and give the people more information they need to understand what this all means to each of them, and where it is likely to take us.
As Edward Deming famously said, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
So here are some relevant figures that help illustrate the real water consumption of AI data centres.
According to data from EUDCA (the European Data Centre Association), a typical American golf course consumes around 432,000 cubic meters of water per year?
By contrast, an entire mid‑sized data centre (with a power capacity between 1 and 5 MW) uses about 417,000 cubic meters of water annually (older cooling technology), which is roughly equivalent to the consumption of about 1,000 households.
The EUDCA report offers plenty of striking insights and is genuinely worth a read.
https://www.eudca.org/seeing-through-the-mist-data-centres-and-water-usage
Guess I'm still missing something. Why does Virginia need 385 data centers? What is that in digital capacity or whatever data is measured in. It's like crypto currency to me, something you never see, assume it exists. and take someones word for the fact you actually own it.
I think your next article should be on the energy supply problems. Maryland should be similar to Virginia, but we have supply problems from a lack of energy production plants, and limited distribution infrastructure. Still, the energy producers are getting record profits while consumers are stuck with increasing rates. America in general has an energy plant production problem. Not enough, and too much NIMBY.
The pipe dream of solar and wind seems to plague Maryland. “Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2031 and establishes 2045 as the state’s goal for becoming carbon neutral. The goal for greenhouse gas emission reduction, which was increased from 40% of 2006 levels, became part of Maryland’s Climate Pollution Reduction Plan, passed by Governor Moore in 2025.” Policy is everything. Maryland is following in the footsteps of California. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/08/25/maryland-signs-agreement-for-power-produced-on-reclaimed-coal-mine/
The regulator for PJM which is the power grid Virginia is located in said the following:
“PJM’s own federally mandated market monitor, which found data centers caused 63% of the capacity price increase and called the impact “not reversible.” Capacity prices 10x’d, ratepayers are paying $1.4 billion more a year starting this month.”
I guess that’s why you cited Heritage instead.
https://pulpitfortruth.substack.com/p/its-getting-hot-in-here
Alexander, as a TX Resident, I will guarantee that withdrawing an acre-inch from a VA water source to initially fill up the cooling system is a much smaller portion of the yearly rain fall or the total available water source than the High Plains of TX. Your analysis leaves that out.
I had the same thought reading this piece. It seems like there will be areas more suitable due to consistency of water supply. While largely unpopulated areas like West Texas, where utility infrastructure is sorely needed seem idea in those respects, consistent drought may make them unsuitable. Water supply is so “front of mind” throughout Texas, it seems like many data center developers would look for (literally) greener pastures. There may be areas along the Gulf Coast that are suitable.
I’d be interested what a trusted source like Alex knows about geographic conditions that make an area more suitable for this type of industry. For example, would areas with a high water table like the Florida Everglades, or areas that get a lot of rain like Washington State, the Tennessee or Ohio Valleys be more considered more suitable. What about low population, consistently cool areas with high snow melt like Alaska? Also, do the specific needs of this industry necessitate data centers in a diffuse network or could the need be served by several high density areas like Northern Virginia?