Mecklenburg County, Virginia
DataCentersExposed tracks 6 AI data centers in Mecklenburg County, Virginia — 0 operating and 4 in the pipeline, drawing 920 MW of reported power demand, led by Microsoft Corporation. Its transparent data-center risk score is 0/100.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
- Project exposure · 14
- Power demand · 45
- Water draw · n/a
- Land footprint · n/a
What's happening in Mecklenburg County
Facilities here with disclosed capacity draw 920 MW from the local grid. Data-center load on this scale is the single biggest driver of recent capacity-market price increases — costs that flow through to every ratepayer in the service territory, not just the operators.
Microsoft Corporation has the largest presence in Mecklenburg County. We resolve project codenames and shell LLCs back to the corporate parent wherever the public record allows, so the table below names who is actually behind each site.
Below: every tracked facility in the county, the active state legislation that names it or its county, and local news. Commissioner vote records arrive in a later release; the placeholders show where that accountability data will land.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 21 standardized 36 MW campuses in Mecklenburg County by 2035 — roughly 756 MW of new electricity demand and ~731 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 55 campuses (2.0 GW). For scale, we currently track 6 real data centers in Mecklenburg County (920 MW of reported power).
- Low growth17612 MW · ~592 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth21756 MW · ~731 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth411.5 GW · ~1.4 billion gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth552.0 GW · ~1.9 billion gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Mecklenburg County (the rest to mechanical/air cooling), a split it derives from local water stress and wet-bulb temperature.
These are modeled candidate sites, not announced or permitted facilities. PNNL's IM3 model places identical 36 MW unit-campuses at feasible locations under each scenario — it shows where demand could concentrate, never a specific parcel. Figures use a market-gravity weight of 50. How the model works.
Every tracked facility
| Facility | Operator | Status | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clarksville Data Center Campus Clarksville | Microsoft Corporation | Proposed | — |
| Hillcrest Data Center South Hill | Microsoft Corporation | Proposed | — |
| LYH03 Bailey – Microsoft Chase City | Microsoft Corporation | Proposed | — |
| Microsoft Boydton — Region 2 Boydton | Microsoft Corporation | Under construction | 380 |
| Microsoft Boydton — Region 1 Boydton | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | 540 |
| Microsoft Boydton Data Center | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | — |
County commissioners
How the Mecklenburg County board votes on each data-center matter — the rezonings, the abatements, the water permits — is built from public-meeting minutes and roll-call records. Know of a vote we should be tracking? Tell us.