Virginia

~600 facilities36% of facilities tracked here

The headline number

~25%

of US data center capacity runs through Northern Virginia, the largest concentration on Earth

Water stress

Moderate: the region is water-rich, but Loudoun County utilities now plan explicitly around data center demand, and reclaimed-water lines are being extended to the largest campuses.

The local story

Data Center Alley (Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties) hosts on the order of 600 facilities and carries roughly a quarter of US capacity. Up to 70% of global internet traffic touches Ashburn on any given day, and the AI build-out is densifying exactly here first.

Water is the quieter half of Virginia's story because Loudoun Water got ahead of it: the county serves most large campuses with reclaimed wastewater rather than potable supply, a model other states cite. The louder half is electricity: Dominion Energy's load forecasts bent so sharply upward that new gas capacity and delayed coal retirements are now argued about in water terms too, since the grid's water footprint lands in our Mid scenario.

For scale: at typical evaporative-cooling rates, Virginia's fleet would consume several billion gallons a year on-site (comparable to a mid-sized city) before counting the water behind its electricity.

Cite this pagev1.3.1 · 2026-09

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