North Carolina: data centers & your electric bill
The numbers residents cite at hearings — grid, water, and regulator contacts for North Carolina, from the free GridWatch toolkit.
Subscribe by RSS — moratorium changes and community headlines for North Carolina.
As of July 2026 · changes over months · Source: U.S. Data Center Power Map by State — ElectricChoice.com compilation (updated July 2026; CC-BY 4.0). Underlying load research: LBNL 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report; rates: EIA
Facility counts vary by directory because each one draws the boundary differently — DataCenterMap lists 44 in Alabama where this table says 35, since it counts small network rooms alongside hyperscale campuses. Cite the TWh figure rather than the facility count when you can; it is the number that speaks to grid impact. Underlying load research is LBNL-2001637 (Dec 2024).
Your regulator
North Carolina Utilities Commission — website · file a complaint
Official state energy data: EIA North Carolina electricity profile — generation, prices, and consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Pushback already happening in North Carolina
| Where | Level | Status | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gates County | Local | Enactedexpires 2026-12-17 | 1-year pause, unanimous; covers all data center and crypto mining applications. Preventative — prompted by two inquiries from a data center consulting firm. County water system has been under its own moratorium since 2018 | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Brevard | Local | Expiredterm ran to 2026-06-23 | 90-day moratorium while city staff draft UDO text amendments. Term may have lapsed — confirm current status with the city | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Clay County | Local | Enacted | Permanent ban — Ordinance No. 01.08.2026 prohibits the establishment, construction, expansion, or operation of commercial data centers in all zoning districts | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Canton | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-02-11 | 12-month pause, unanimous; covers data centers, crypto mining, and server farms. ~200 residents attended. Prompted by inquiries about the former Evergreen Packaging paper mill site | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Chatham County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-02-11 | 12-month pause on data centers, data processing, and crypto mining in unincorporated areas; expires Feb 11, 2027 or when new zoning regulations are adopted. A developer has sued, claiming it blocks a planned 750 MW project | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Kings Mountain | Local | Enactedexpires soon — 2026-08-25 | 182-day (6-month) pause, passed 5-2. Planning department studying setbacks/screening, utility capacity, and noise standards | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Boone | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-03-23 | 1-year pause, unanimous (5-0); covers data centers and crypto mining within town limits. Nearly 100 residents attended in support. Council pursuing permanent regulations | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Apex | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-27 | 12-month pause, unanimous; effective Apr 28. Covers data centers, data processing, and crypto mining. Followed withdrawal of the 250 MW 'New Hill Digital Campus' proposal | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Orange County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-21 | 1-year pause, 6-0; covers large-scale data centers including AI, crypto mining, and data processing. No large-scale data centers currently in the county | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Rowan County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-05-04 | 1-year pause, unanimous; prohibits zoning or rezoning for data center purposes. Does NOT apply to the existing Long Ferry Road project (Edged Energy). 100+ residents attended; 5,200+ petition signatures | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Swain County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-21 | 12-month pause, unanimous. Public hearing drew 140 residents and 34 speakers in Bryson City. Two citizen advisory committees formed to study impacts | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Watauga County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-21 | 1-year pause, unanimous; suspends new data center construction county-wide. County collaborating with utilities, conservation groups, and NC DEQ on permanent regulations. Separate from the Town of Boone moratorium (Mar 23) | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Madison County | Local | Expiredterm ran to 2024-06-13 | 1-year moratorium on data processing facilities including crypto mining and large server farms, passed unanimously. Would have expired ~Jun 2024; no extension or replacement ordinance found. Confirm current status with the county before citing as active | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Clyde | Local | Enacted | Permanent ban — Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to amend the zoning ordinance to prohibit data centers in all zoning districts. Proactive; no specific proposal was pending | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Holly Springs | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-16 | 1-year pause on data center construction | Source read 2026-08-04 |
| Charlotte | Local | Proposed | 180-day moratorium on data centers over 100,000 sq ft; initial vote deadlocked 5-5 with one member absent, so the motion failed. Reintroduced in 2026 amid continued community pressure | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Durham | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-15 | 60-day moratorium passed unanimously May 5, extended to 12 months on Jun 15. Covers data centers, data processing, and crypto mining. Council first amended the UDO to remove the local cap on moratorium length | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Harnett County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-05-03 | 1-year pause, unanimous; unincorporated areas. ~75 minutes of public comment with no speakers in favour of data centers. County Manager cited water/electricity consumption concerns | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Cumberland County | Local | Enactedexpires 2026-12-15 | 6-month pause, 7-0; unincorporated areas only. Staff developing a data center ordinance with town halls in Aug and draft in Sep. Does not reach proposals seeking annexation into Fayetteville | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Fayetteville | Local | Rejected | Moratorium motion failed 5-5 on Aug 10; council voted 7-3 to pursue regulatory ordinance revisions instead, targeted for late Oct 2026. Cumberland County's 6-month moratorium covers unincorporated areas but not the city | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Greensboro | Local | Proposed | Council voted 5-4 on Jul 21 against even starting the moratorium process, then reversed course and set a public hearing on a 120-day pause for facilities above 10 MW. Nothing is in effect yet | Source read 2026-08-04 |
| Farmville | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-08-03 | 12-month moratorium on data-center development, approved unanimously by the town's Board of Commissioners to allow staff time to research impacts and draft ordinance language, after East Energy Renewables (headquartered in Farmville) pitched a data-center network to town leaders in February. | Source read 2026-08-12 |
| Waxhaw | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-08-11 | 12-month moratorium, unanimous; covers data centers, crypto mining, and related digital infrastructure. Preemptive — no proposals pending | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Statesville | Local | Proposed | 180-day moratorium passed first reading; second reading scheduled Sep 14, 2026. No new data centers planned but city has received inquiries and the UDC does not address data centers | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Asheville | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-17 | 1-year moratorium covering all data centers regardless of size. City drafting zoning laws. Intensive impacts on local electric and water utilities, noise, and heat | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Wendell | Local | Enactedexpires 2026-12-31 | Moratorium through Dec 31, 2026. Preemptive — no data center applications filed. Pause for leaders to learn about impacts | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| Davie County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-07-07 | 1-year data center moratorium | Unverified |
As of August 2026 · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Known data center campuses in North Carolina
| Operator | Location | Tenant | Filing LLC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenoir | Land-acquisition shells: Jet Stream LLC, Sharka LLC | ||
| Meta | Forest City | Meta | Codename shells: Greater Kudu, Raven Northbrook, Stadion, Wobniar, Pinnacle Mountain |
| Microsoft | Maiden (Catawba Co.) | Microsoft | Project-name / generic 'Holdings LLC'; less consistently codenamed |
| Amazon (AWS) | Richmond County (Rockingham) | Amazon (AWS) | Vadata, Inc. — AWS's build/operating entity on many permits |
⏳ No verification date recorded · changes over months · Source: Operator ownership & filing-LLC naming patterns — compiled from operator releases and county filings, then checked against SEC EDGAR full-text search. Composite, not a single citation: look the entity up yourself before naming it in a filing
Each row carries its own attribution level — first-party rows come from the operator's own site, but colocation and REIT ownership was compiled from trade press and never passed an independent fact-check. Check the attribution column before citing a row.
Every data center already built in North Carolina
The campuses above are the ones GridWatch tracks by operator and filing LLC. For the full inventory — street addresses of every existing facility, including the smaller colocation and network sites — DataCenterMap keeps a public directory for North Carolina.
Browse the North Carolina directory →
Two caveats before you cite it at a hearing: it lists facilities that already exist, so a newly proposed campus will not appear; and it counts a small network room the same as a hyperscale campus, so the facility count is not a measure of power draw or community impact.
Latest North Carolina data center news
No North Carolina data-center headlines in this week's national scan — local coverage often runs ahead of it.
Search live North Carolina data center news → GridWatch news feed →
Video coverage mentioning North Carolina
State municipal league: North Carolina League of Municipalities
A data center was proposed near you?
The free toolkit walks you through it in five steps: who's really behind the LLC, what it costs your community, what to do this week, and a downloadable action pack — speech, letters, flyer, and CBA targets included.