Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Northern Virginia has far more data centers than anywhere else on Earth, making it the capital of the global Internet. Join me in exploring why its geography and proximity to Washington DC explain why this happened. Subscribe for more videos like this: youtube.com/TheDailyConversation
Virginia data center explosion explained virginiamercury.com/2024/05/28/virginia-explained-data-center-expansion-with-all-its-challenges-and-benefits
Interactive Data Center Map datacentermap.com/content/nova
FEMA National Risk [Interactive Map] hazards.fema.gov/nri/map
Northern Virginia is the 'heart of the Internet' washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/10/data-centers-northern-virginia-internet
Virginia counties population density usa.com/rank/virginia-state--population-density--county-rank.htm
Loudoun economic development director on tax revenue youtu.be/rVxfTZqVtzY?si=z_wHDxmPMfMJGGzw&t=46
Quantum Loophole (Frederick County's massive campus) datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/quantum-loophole-heads-out-of-virginia-and-into-maryland
Digital Gateway (Prince William) princewilliamtimes.com/news/prince-william-countys-massive-digital-gateway-data-center-development-nears-a-vote/article_79823248-7463-57ca-a3b6-a65b7d69af35.html
PJM Electricity import/export hourly map pjm.com/markets-and-operations/state-import-export-map.aspx
PJM Interconnection RTO en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PJM_Interconnection
MPRP proposed route corporate.pseg.com/aboutpseg/companyinformation/thepsegfamilyofcompanies/psegrenewabletransmission/mprp-proposed-route.ashx
PJM regional transmission planning pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/library/reports-notices/2023-rtep/rtep-meeting-the-grids-future-needs.pdf
MPRP public hearing youtube.com/watch?v=t8iX1-cRX08
AI electricity usage report epri.com/research/products/3002028905
Proposed Chesterfield gas power plant https://www.vaclimate.gmu.edu/blog/proposed-power-plant-chesterfield
Coastal Virginia offshore wind project coastalvawind.com
North Anna nuclear license extended virginiabusiness.com/north-anna-gets-federal-ok-to-operate-through-2060
Three Mile Island restarted nytimes.com/2024/10/30/business/energy-environment/three-mile-island-nuclear-energy.html
US Department of Energy investing in burying transmission lines arpa-e.energy.gov/news-and-media/press-releases/us-department-energy-announces-34-million-improve-reliability
Google announces co-locating data centers with clean energy https://blog.google/inside-google/infrastructure/new-approach-to-data-center-and-clean-energy-growth/
AI poised to drive electricity demand goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand
This is the heart of the Internet: Loudoun County, Virginia. A third of all the online information is travelling through the fiber optic cables under all these data centers.
It’s all happening here because Loudoun is rated by FEMA as one of the most resilient counties - in terms of hazards - near Washington, D.C. and the 2,000 federal agencies headquartered there, who are big users of data. Plus it has the space to build: with a significantly lower population density than the other counties ringing DC.
In the 1990’s it was one of the Internet’s original “primary nodes,” the MAE-East network access point, although things are much more distributed now, with dense bundles of underground fiber-optic cables serving ultra-fast, low latency connections between the region’s growing data centers and all of our devices around the world, via lines running along the ocean floor.
This year we’ll get about three-quarters of a billion dollars in local tax revenue. There’s nothing out there that we’ve ever seen that generates the tax revenue that a data center does.
Now that Loudoun’s nearly saturated, developers are building them throughout the region. In neighboring Prince William County and Frederick, across the Potomac in Maryland, they’re going big. Each county will see vast, 2,000-acre swaths of farmland turn into campuses with more than 20 million square feet of data centers.
Hourly map of electricity imports and exports shows, both Virginia and Maryland are already big net importers of electricity in the 11-state regional transmission organization called PJM, and these new data center campuses will add hundreds more megawatts to their loads.
So to make sure everyone has enough power, PJM has contracted the building of new high voltage transmission lines, including a 70-mile line cutting through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties called the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, or MPRP.
0:00 Data Center Alley
1:29 Tax revenue
2:04 Local impact
3:16 Data center expansion
3:53 Electricity demand
5:15 New electricity production
6:10 Innovations to reduce lines
Northern Virginia has far more data centers than anywhere else on Earth, making it the capital of the global Internet. Join me in exploring why its geography and proximity to Washington DC explain why this happened. Subscribe for more videos like this: youtube.com/TheDailyConversation
Virginia data center explosion explained virginiamercury.com/2024/05/28/virginia-explained-data-center-expansion-with-all-its-challenges-and-benefits
Interactive Data Center Map datacentermap.com/content/nova
FEMA National Risk [Interactive Map] hazards.fema.gov/nri/map
Northern Virginia is the 'heart of the Internet' washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/10/data-centers-northern-virginia-internet
Virginia counties population density usa.com/rank/virginia-state--population-density--county-rank.htm
Loudoun economic development director on tax revenue youtu.be/rVxfTZqVtzY?si=z_wHDxmPMfMJGGzw&t=46
Quantum Loophole (Frederick County's massive campus) datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/quantum-loophole-heads-out-of-virginia-and-into-maryland
Digital Gateway (Prince William) princewilliamtimes.com/news/prince-william-countys-massive-digital-gateway-data-center-development-nears-a-vote/article_79823248-7463-57ca-a3b6-a65b7d69af35.html
PJM Electricity import/export hourly map pjm.com/markets-and-operations/state-import-export-map.aspx
PJM Interconnection RTO en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PJM_Interconnection
MPRP proposed route corporate.pseg.com/aboutpseg/companyinformation/thepsegfamilyofcompanies/psegrenewabletransmission/mprp-proposed-route.ashx
PJM regional transmission planning pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/library/reports-notices/2023-rtep/rtep-meeting-the-grids-future-needs.pdf
MPRP public hearing youtube.com/watch?v=t8iX1-cRX08
AI electricity usage report epri.com/research/products/3002028905
Proposed Chesterfield gas power plant https://www.vaclimate.gmu.edu/blog/proposed-power-plant-chesterfield
Coastal Virginia offshore wind project coastalvawind.com
North Anna nuclear license extended virginiabusiness.com/north-anna-gets-federal-ok-to-operate-through-2060
Three Mile Island restarted nytimes.com/2024/10/30/business/energy-environment/three-mile-island-nuclear-energy.html
US Department of Energy investing in burying transmission lines arpa-e.energy.gov/news-and-media/press-releases/us-department-energy-announces-34-million-improve-reliability
Google announces co-locating data centers with clean energy https://blog.google/inside-google/infrastructure/new-approach-to-data-center-and-clean-energy-growth/
AI poised to drive electricity demand goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand
This is the heart of the Internet: Loudoun County, Virginia. A third of all the online information is travelling through the fiber optic cables under all these data centers.
It’s all happening here because Loudoun is rated by FEMA as one of the most resilient counties - in terms of hazards - near Washington, D.C. and the 2,000 federal agencies headquartered there, who are big users of data. Plus it has the space to build: with a significantly lower population density than the other counties ringing DC.
In the 1990’s it was one of the Internet’s original “primary nodes,” the MAE-East network access point, although things are much more distributed now, with dense bundles of underground fiber-optic cables serving ultra-fast, low latency connections between the region’s growing data centers and all of our devices around the world, via lines running along the ocean floor.
This year we’ll get about three-quarters of a billion dollars in local tax revenue. There’s nothing out there that we’ve ever seen that generates the tax revenue that a data center does.
Now that Loudoun’s nearly saturated, developers are building them throughout the region. In neighboring Prince William County and Frederick, across the Potomac in Maryland, they’re going big. Each county will see vast, 2,000-acre swaths of farmland turn into campuses with more than 20 million square feet of data centers.
Hourly map of electricity imports and exports shows, both Virginia and Maryland are already big net importers of electricity in the 11-state regional transmission organization called PJM, and these new data center campuses will add hundreds more megawatts to their loads.
So to make sure everyone has enough power, PJM has contracted the building of new high voltage transmission lines, including a 70-mile line cutting through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties called the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, or MPRP.
0:00 Data Center Alley
1:29 Tax revenue
2:04 Local impact
3:16 Data center expansion
3:53 Electricity demand
5:15 New electricity production
6:10 Innovations to reduce lines
