The Anti-Data Center Movement Notches a Huge Victory in Data Center Alley

Virginia is home to the most data centers in the nation, with more than 660 already operational and another 600 planned to go up in the near future. But at least one of those projects has hit a significant roadblock. The stakeholders in a massive 2,100-acre data center are pulling out after getting hammered by angry residents who oppose the project. Bloomberg reports that data center construction firm Compass Datacenters and financial backer Brookfield Asset Management have been pursuing this project for years. It first received approval in 2023, when a highly contentious hearing of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors gave it the green light on a 4-3 vote. The project, dubbed Digital Gateway, was proposed to put up about 23 million square feet of data center space, which would have made it one of the largest data center clusters in the world. But the hurdles started almost immediately, as residents in Northern Virginia decided there was already enough data processing happening next door. The hangup seemed to stem from an 800-acre stretch of land that Prince William County wouldn’t sign off on allowing the companies to develop. Despite spending tens of millions of dollars