Local opposition sank a proposed data center near Kingsboro in Eastern North Carolina, where residents had raised alarms about the project's potential effects on water supplies, electricity use, and quality of life.
The company behind the project said investors chose to focus on "friendlier communities" after residents asked hard questions about their water and power.
What happened?
At a recent board meeting, County Manager Eric Evans said Energy Storage Solutions was no longer pursuing the proposal. As The Daily Reflector reported, the board also voted to send back the deposit the company had put down on the land.
Energy Storage Solutions had been considering wooded property in Kingsboro Business Park, including one parcel of over 20 acres and another of about 100 acres. "That project is officially off the table for consideration from the board," Evans said.
Energy Storage Solutions President Dan Shaffer told the Rocky Mount Telegram that investor support fell away after delays and backlash as well as similar complications surrounding another proposal in Tarboro. Investors "insisted that we move forward with other projects that we have in friendlier communities," he wrote, per The Daily Reflector.
Shaffer added, "We believe we have reached a settlement with the town of Tarboro, and we expect to withdraw our lawsuit shortly, but ESS will not be building a data center there." The Tarboro Town Council had rejected the company's permit application in a 6-1 vote in September, and the dispute landed in court.
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Why does it matter?
The conflict in Edgecombe County comes as data center proposals increasingly draw resistance from communities that doubt the promised economic payoffs are worth the strain on their water and power.
During public comments before Evans shared the news, Vinson Bridgers said a small cut to the county's tax rate wouldn't be worth losing badly needed water, taking on more air pollution, and risking higher electric rates. He also said groundwater levels keep falling and that the Tar River was at a historic low.
Bridgers pointed to Northern Virginia, where a power shortage pushed communities to ask nearby data centers to fire up backup generators. "Have you ever tried to sleep in a room at 80 degrees and then get up at 6 a.m. and go to work? It's not easy. This can happen here," he said, per The Daily Reflector.
What's being done?
The Edgecombe County Board of Commissioners voted in June to hold a public hearing Monday on a two-year data center moratorium. Such meetings have caused developers to abandon projects, including a Texas data center at Cedar Creek Lake.
"I'm influenced by information that I've received from the community and others," Board Chair Leonard Wiggins said, per The Daily Reflector.
Commissioner Dewitt Woodley supported a temporary pause. "I don't want to close the door completely and say: No, no, no," he said. "Let's put a stronghold pause on it until we can find out more accurate information as it will relate to us."
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