South Carolina
DataCentersExposed tracks 17 AI data centers in South Carolina — 1 operating and 8 in the pipeline — across 10 counties, drawing 1.6 GW of reported power demand from 3 tracked corporate operators.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
South Carolina at a glance
The largest footprint in South Carolina belongs to Alphabet Inc., behind 4 tracked facilities. DC BLOX and Meta Platforms, Inc. round out the most active operators in the state. Many of these sites are filed under shell or project names rather than the parent's — our operator column resolves them back to the real corporate parent wherever the chain is documented.
Geographically, the buildout clusters: Berkeley County leads South Carolina with 5 facilities and a composite risk score of 13/100. Horry County and Colleton County follow. Our county risk score weights project exposure (40%), power demand (30%), water draw (15%), and land footprint (15%); the full breakdown is shown on each county page.
South Carolina is not done growing. 8 facilities are in the pipeline — proposed, permitted, or under construction — which is where residents still have a say at zoning hearings and in rate cases. Each pending project is a decision about land, water, electricity prices, and tax revenue that hasn't been finalized.
We also surface the accountability trail: 8 state bills mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for South Carolina below, pulled from LegiScan and GDELT and refreshed automatically. Legislation is linked to the counties and operators it names; news is classified by community sentiment.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 4 standardized 36 MW campuses in South Carolina by 2035 — roughly 144 MW of new electricity demand and ~139 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 25 campuses (900 MW). For scale, we currently track 17 real data centers in South Carolina (1.6 GW of reported power).
- Low growth3108 MW · ~104 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth4144 MW · ~139 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth12432 MW · ~383 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth25900 MW · ~836 M gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in South Carolina (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.
Top operators in South Carolina
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley County | 5 | 1 | 13 |
| Horry County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Colleton County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Dorchester County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Kershaw County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Marion County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Spartanburg County | 1 | — | — |
| Aiken County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Union County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Cherokee County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
- Proposed1.0 GWWalterboro Data CenterEagle Rock Partners · Colleton County
- Proposed300 MWCielo Digital InfrastructureOperator unknown · Cherokee County
- Proposed49 MWProject AlpacaVolt Edge Energy · Union County
- Proposed45 MWDC Blox: Camp HallOperator unknown · Berkeley County
- ProposedProject LibertyStream Data Centers · Marion County
- ProposedTerra Nexus Ventures Data CenterOperator unknown · Kershaw County