ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Here's a question - where does the internet live? Well, it's spread out in lots of places, yes, but more than 10% of all the world's data storage capacity is in Virginia - in servers stacked in some 340 big warehouses near the Washington, D.C., suburbs. That's more than double the capacity of Beijing, in second place. That's from a report by Virginia's legislature. It notes that the business brings in a lot of money but has some growing pains. Other states might start seeing the same issues soon. WAMU's Margaret Barthel reports.
MARGARET BARTHEL, BYLINE: Northern Virginia became the capital of the data center industry because of fiber-optic cables, dating to the early days of the internet. Then there's the available land and proximity to the defense industry and large populations. Shorter distance to internet users means faster speeds. It also has tax breaks and political support for the $9 billion it adds annually to the state economy. Here's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, launching a community college program for data center training this year.
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GLENN YOUNGKIN: There's the enormous investment associated with, of course, building a data center. There are all of the people that they employ - I mean, great jobs - I mean, the kind of jobs that provide careers for people.
BARTHEL: But, as the industry has grown, so has opposition. Dale Browne is in the homeowners' association for a neighborhood with data centers nearby, and they can hear them.
DALE BROWNE: It's just a continuous hum. It just goes and goes.
BARTHEL: Browne and his neighbors take daily measurements of the hum, which they say keeps them and local wildlife out of their backyards. Browne is also concerned about what the data centers might mean for his electricity bill.
BROWNE: We're going to be paying more for power because of these. Rates are going to go up.
BARTHEL: The state's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission recently released a report that found the data centers do contribute 74,000 jobs annually, mostly during their construction phase. As for the noise for neighbors, the report says it doesn't endanger hearing but that the centers are not compatible with residential areas. Mainly, it warns it will be very difficult for Virginia to build enough new power plants and transmission lines to keep up with the industry's rapid expansion, even if the state gives up on climate goals around phasing out fossil fuels. Data centers use about the same amount of electricity as 60% of the homes in the state, driving up power bills.
LAUREN BRIDGES: We see Virginia somewhat as a harbinger of what's to come in other states, as data center demand has been growing in hot spots around the United States and around the world.
BARTHEL: Lauren Bridges is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia. She studies digital infrastructure and says the internet has hidden costs, like the long-term effects of carbon emissions.
BRIDGES: This is a huge industrial producer. It has a huge industrial footprint. And that means that we need to hold these industrial producers to account, just in the same way we would have the smokestacks of past.
BARTHEL: The Data Center Coalition, an industry group, pointed out that the report notes the industry is paying the full cost for service for the electricity it uses in providing essential infrastructure for the modern economy. But Virginia State Senator Danica Roem has been filing bills to impose more regulation of data centers for years, and she plans to continue.
DANICA ROEM: You'd better expect, in 2025, I'm going to go to town on the siting portion of this to keep these things the hell away from the homes, from parks, schools and, frankly, from the woods to begin with, as well.
BARTHEL: The report recommends that Virginia lawmakers consider slowing the industry's growth. They could phase out the tax breaks, which cost $950 million in foregone revenue last year. But most other states also offer tax breaks as they try to get some of the money and jobs for themselves. Virginia's experience offers clues to what that might eventually mean.
For NPR News in Arlington, Virginia, I'm Margaret Barthel.
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