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Loudoun County: data centers & powered land

Loudoun County, which says it has the world's largest concentration of data centers, ended by-right data center approvals in March 2025.[1][2]

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Zoning

  • On March 18, 2025 the Board of Supervisors adopted Zoning Ordinance and Comprehensive Plan amendments that removed data centers as a by-right use and made them subject to special exception review.[2]
  • The amendments passed 7-2, and a separate resolution passed 5-4 letting 22 pending applications continue under administrative review if they are more than 500 feet from residential units and diligently pursued.[5]
  • Data centers are located only on land zoned for office and industrial uses, and the rural policy area, about two-thirds of the county's land, does not allow them.[2]
  • The county states it does not have the legal authority to impose a moratorium on new data center applications.[2]
  • The Board approved the Phase 2 Data Center Standards and Locations project plan on September 16, 2025, with a Planning Commission public hearing anticipated in February 2027 and a Board public hearing anticipated in July 2027.[3]
  • Phase 2 staff are reviewing rules on noise, on-site energy generation, battery energy storage, substations, and data center design and siting, and held public open houses in September 2026.[6]

Power & transmission

  • Dominion Energy is building a 500/230 kV Loudoun Reliability Loop near Ashburn; the Aspen to Golden segment was approved by the SCC on February 5, 2025 and affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court on February 19, 2026, and Mars to Wishing Star is under construction with energization expected summer 2026.[7]
  • For the Golden to Mars 500/230 kV segment, SCC case PUR-2025-00056, Route 3A was approved on June 29, 2026 after the Loudoun County School Board did not consent to the Route 4 crossing of its property.[7][8]
  • Additional Dominion applications pending at the SCC in 2026 include Morrisville to Wishing Star, a new 500 kV line with 4.8 miles in Loudoun (PUR-2026-00021), and BECO to Firehouse, two additional 230 kV lines (PUR-2026-00062).[8]
  • The county reports 95 existing and proposed substations as of March 1, 2026, and cites PJM as saying Loudoun data centers use at least 3 GW at any given time.[9]

Utilities

UtilityType
Dominion Energy VirginiaInvestor-owned utility
Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC)Electric cooperative

Campuses

CampusOperatorStatus
Equinix DC2 (Ashburn Campus)EquinixOperating
Digital Realty Digital Loudoun PlazaDigital RealtyOperating
Digital Realty Round Table PlazaDigital RealtyOperating

Incentives & taxes

  • Computer equipment in Loudoun data centers is taxed at the general personal property rate of $4.15 per $100 of assessed value for tax years 2026 and 2027.[4]
  • Virginia's sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment, available since 2010, was worth $928 million in tax savings to the industry in FY23 according to JLARC.[10]

Water

  • On an average day, data centers account for 9% of total potable water use in Loudoun, according to the county.[11]
  • Loudoun Water's reclaimed water system, built in 2010 partly for early data centers, delivered more than 750 million gallons to roughly 40 customers in 2025.[11]

Fiber

  • Loudoun Economic Development's data center page says that more than 70% of the world's internet traffic courses through the networks of companies in the county, a figure that appears in a caption from a 2015 forum.[12]

Local sentiment

  • Hundreds of Loudoun Valley Estates residents attended a 2025 SCC hearing opposing Golden to Mars routes near their homes, and more than 1,550 pages of public comment were filed.[13]
  • In July 2026 the Loudoun County School Board moved to appeal the Golden to Mars approval to the Virginia Supreme Court because the approved route crosses school property.[14]
  • The Board of Supervisors voted on September 15, 2026 to oppose the proposed Valley North 765 kV transmission project.[8]

Known gaps

  • No county-published count of operating data centers or total operating MW was found on county pages.
  • Phase 2 data center standards are still in draft; final noise, generation and siting rules are unknown until 2027 hearings.
  • Outcome of the School Board's Virginia Supreme Court appeal of Golden to Mars could not be confirmed.
  • The split of data center load between Dominion and NOVEC within Loudoun could not be confirmed.
  • Remaining grid capacity or interconnection wait times for new Loudoun projects in 2026 were not published in sources reviewed.

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Sources

  1. Data Centers in Loudoun County Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  2. Data Centers: Land Use Considerations Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  3. Phase 2: Data Center Standards & Locations Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  4. Data Centers: Tax Revenues & County Budget Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  5. By-Right Data Centers Eliminated in Loudoun, Existing Applications Grandfathered Loudoun Now. Accessed .
  6. News Flash: Data Center Standards open houses Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  7. Northern Virginia Power Line Projects Dominion Energy. Accessed .
  8. Transmission Lines in Loudoun County Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  9. Data Centers: Energy Issues & Considerations Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  10. Data Centers in Virginia (2024) Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Accessed .
  11. Data Centers: Water Considerations Loudoun County Government. Accessed .
  12. Data Centers Loudoun County Department of Economic Development. Accessed .
  13. Loudoun transmission line debate tees up SCC response to data center needs, resident concerns Virginia Mercury. Accessed .
  14. Loudoun County schools taking transmission line fight to Virginia Supreme Court WJLA. Accessed .

14 sources cited. See the methodology for how facts are selected and reviewed.