The Good
The Good
What can a well-planned data center bring to a community?
Benefits vary substantially by project and jurisdiction. The size of a facility, the terms of its agreements, the local tax structure and the utility's planning decisions all change the answer. The categories below describe what is possible; the citation cards describe what has been documented.
Economic development
New capital investment in a jurisdiction, and the activity that can follow it. The scale depends on the project and on what the community negotiates.
Construction spending
Multi-year construction phases can bring spending on labor, materials, lodging and local services, concentrated in the build period.
Employment
Construction jobs during the build and permanent operations jobs afterward. Ask for both numbers separately; they differ by an order of magnitude at many facilities.
Property and other applicable tax revenues
Property, sales-and-use and equipment taxes can be substantial, or substantially abated. The net figure depends on incentives granted.
Utility infrastructure investment
New substations, lines and generation built to serve a facility may also strengthen service for the surrounding area, depending on how they are planned and paid for.
Technology infrastructure
Fiber routes and network capacity built for a facility can, in some cases, improve connectivity for nearby homes and businesses.
Community investment
Voluntary contributions to schools, parks, emergency services or community funds. Ask whether they are written into an enforceable agreement.
Workforce development
Training partnerships with community colleges and trade programs for electrical, mechanical and technical roles.
Supplier opportunities
Local contractors, maintenance firms, security, landscaping and food service may win recurring work from an operating facility.
Long-term economic activity
Operations can run for decades, but hardware and lease terms turn over. Ask what happens at the end of each cycle.
Sourcing
No unsourced statistics.
Every major claim on this page carries a citation card. If a number cannot be traced to a public source with a date and a geography, it does not get published here.
What every citation card records
- Claim
- The sentence exactly as it appears on the page
- Source
- The author or organization that published it
- Source URL
- A link to the document itself
- Publication
- Where it was published
- Date
- When it was published
- Date accessed
- When we last checked it
- Geography
- The state, county or project it describes
- Notes
- Limitations, definitions and caveats a reader should know
A benefit that cannot be measured cannot be verified. The Good Neighbor Standard shows how each of these can be written down, disclosed and reported.
We need your help now.
Data center decisions are being made this fall in county chambers and utility dockets across the country. Your contribution puts sourced information, a public survey and a project-by-project record in front of the people who will live with them.