Washington, D.C.’s metropolitan area has long hummed with data centers. The region, which encompasses much of Northern Virginia, has become known as Data Center Alley, home to more data centers than anywhere else in the world. But the data center boom, driven by the rise of AI and the race to build the infrastructure powering it, is changing the geography of these energy-intensive, warehouse-like facilities.
Data centers have arrived in rural America.
The Daily Yonder analyzed crowd-sourced data on the locations of data centers, how they connect to existing grid infrastructure, and where communities are fighting back…