A North Carolina knowledge heart developer’s plan to construct a large 900 MW, 300-acre knowledge heart and power storage campus in japanese North Carolina cleared a serious hurdle this week after county commissioners added knowledge heart development to permitted zoning.
Dan Shaffer, president of Power Storage Options, primarily based in Rocky Mount, N.C., informed DCN that the corporate expects to interrupt floor on the $19.2 billion undertaking within the Kingsboro growth in Tarboro, N.C., within the first quarter of 2026. A twin undertaking can also be deliberate for Fayetteville, N.C., Shaffer mentioned.
When full, the information heart campuses could be among the many largest within the Southeast.
The buildout at each the Kingsboro growth and Fayetteville websites will are available 24 phases over 3-5 years, Shaffer mentioned, and every campus will assist greater than 1,000 workers. The campuses will every have a couple of dozen 40,000-square-foot buildings. Unique plans known as for smaller initiatives, however Shaffer mentioned monetary backers requested him to broaden the footprints to fulfill booming demand. He declined to reveal the names of buyers or distributors concerned.
The corporate will use pure fuel to energy the location, and Shaffer estimates the corporate might pay for $176 million in power infrastructure upgrades within the space. An on-site pure fuel energy era will permit the corporate to promote surplus energy again to native utilities at a reduction.
Blueprint for Power Storage Answer’s proposed Kingsboro NetZero Information Middle Campus. (Supply: Power Storage Options LLC)
Power Storage Options suffered a defeat earlier this yr when Edgecombe County commissioners voted down one other $6.4 million, 100 MW undertaking deliberate for one more web site in Tarboro, following neighborhood opposition. On Monday, those self same commissioners unanimously voted to amend the county’s Unified Improvement Ordinance to permit knowledge heart development in particular industrial zoning districts.
Schaffer mentioned he’s interesting the sooner resolution and nonetheless hopes to construct on the first web site in Tarboro. He mentioned the Kingsboro undertaking will add $75 million in annual tax income for Edgecombe County.
“Most counties throughout the nation haven’t handled knowledge heart zoning,” Shaffer mentioned. “It doesn’t essentially match simply into their interpretation of what the present constructing codes are. So, we’ve labored intently with the county supervisor and employees to place collectively one thing that can work.”
Native Considerations, International Implications
In keeping with Steven Dickens, CEO and analyst at HyperFrame Analysis, native zoning legal guidelines will proceed to affect main initiatives throughout the nation as hyperscalers and others plot large knowledge heart buildouts to fulfill explosive AI market demand.
“That is what is sweet and dangerous concerning the US. … The nice is that authorities is pushed as near the communities as doable,” Dickens mentioned. “However meaning in case you’re a enterprise, you’ve acquired to function regionally, statewide, and federally. AI is a nationwide concern and a geopolitical concern as we glance to compete with China. However the place the investments are made, it’s going to should be completed tactically at a neighborhood zoning stage if you wish to get an information heart up and working.”
Neighborhood opposition can also be having an affect. Amazon pulled an information heart earlier this yr deliberate for Virginia after neighbors objected, and in August, metropolis council members in Tucson, Ariz., shot down Amazon’s deliberate Challenge Blue AI knowledge heart campus.
For his half, Shaffer mentioned he needs to have a constructive affect on the area with the information heart initiatives. Different initiatives are deliberate in South Carolina and Virginia.
“It’s an schooling course of not just for the neighborhood, however for us as effectively,” he mentioned. “We have to perceive their considerations. However generally these considerations should not authentic and simply one thing somebody stumbled onto on the web.”
