They use staggering amounts of electricity and water and have been blamed for escalating electricity bills in other parts of the country. Large-load data centers — the massive windowless warehouses that earned Loudoun County, Va., the nickname "Data Center Alley" — are likely to come to Florida in the next few years.
That likelihood creates difficult decisions for local elected officials such as St. Lucie County Commission Chair Jamie Fowler. A pending rezoning application would convert 1,218 acres of agricultural land into a special district to allow a data center that one day could reach 15 million square feet and cost $13 billion.
Rumor has it "it's supposed to be for one of the 'magnificent seven'" tech giants like Google or Amazon, Fowler says. If it happens, her constituents stand to benefit from both short-term construction jobs and long-term ad valorem tax revenue. St. Lucie County has a deep agricultural heritage, however, so "for me personally, changing that farmland ... is going to require a lot of scrutiny and not a rushed decision."
She's also concerned about opening the door to a cluster. "One data center doesn't necessarily scare me. But ... these tech companies like to congregate together. ... Once we say yes to this one, we could expect more to be knocking on the door."
Fowler and another commissioner plan to visit Loudoun County in April to hear from local officials about the benefits they see and to hear from area residents about the drawbacks, and Fowler has already spoken to the county administrator there. Nobody is predicting Florida could see the kind of data center volume Northern Virginia and other markets experience. But backers cast them as inevitable and encourage communities located near high voltage transmission lines not to miss out on the opportunity.
As more people use chatbots and other forms of artificial intelligence and just about everyone interacts with cloud-based storage, public apprehension about large-load data centers is growing.
As more people use chatbots and other forms of artificial intelligence and just about everyone interacts with cloudbased storage and websites — all accessible through seemingly endless racks of servers housed in data centers — public apprehension about them is growing.
In November, Democrat John McAuliff flipped a Loudoun County state assembly seat after promising to "push back against data center sprawl." In Georgia, two Democrats rode a wave of data center opposition into rare, easy election wins over Republican incumbents.
A St. Lucie County planning and zoning committee last fall voted against recommending the county commission approve the change that would allow the Sentinel Grove Technology Park to advance, and the developer has agreed to table the request until late summer or fall. In the face of public opposition, backers of a second giant data center in Palm Beach County similarly agreed to suspend their request until April. During a public meeting, some residents voiced concern about noise and possible health risks the center might generate, along with its proximity to the Arden subdivision and a school.
In agreeing to the delay, "Project Tango" representative Ernie Cox acknowledged that "if you go on the internet there's a lot of scary stuff about data centers. I've done it. We're not going to build one of those." The comment drew laughter from skeptics in the audience.
Both projects would be built close to 500 kV transmission lines owned by Florida Power & Light (FPL). New FPL President Scott Bores acknowledges public perception toward data centers is an issue. "I think you're going to see us — I don't want to say go on offense a little bit — but we're going to try to do some education to make sure customers truly understand this. ... I think a lot of consumers out there truly don't understand data centers, the benefits of them and why it's important for the country that we are a leader in data center technology to really protect America."
Bores insists that a tariff schedule included in its recently approved rate package protects FPL customers from footing the bill for new data centers. The rate package approved by Florida's appointed Public Service Commission (PSC) caps any billing increases at 2%. It requires data center developers to pay the full cost for any infrastructure needs — things like added electrical generation and transmission lines — and pay their fair share for the electricity they use.
"That is how you neutralize an affordability concern," he said at a December investor conference in New York.
There is precedent. Google is working with FPL's parent NextEra Energy in Iowa to reopen the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in early 2029, hoping it will add more than 600 megawatts of clean, safe, "always-on" nuclear energy for Google's AI operations.
In an interview with Florida Trend, Bores casts FPL almost as a passive observer in the data center market, saying "we have a duty and obligation to serve as does any investorowned utility. If a customer comes, and they're moving here, we've essentially got to give them a meter and provide them electric service. So we've tried to be very forward-thinking with that."
But speaking at the NextEra investor conference, Bores said hyperscalers see Florida as "such a compelling proposition" because of its competitive electricity prices and dependable generation. And that means huge profits from a new line of business.
"Here's a simple way for you guys to think about it: Every gigawatt of large load is equivalent to roughly $2 billion of capex (capital expenditure) opportunity at FPL. And that capex for large loads earns the same return on equity (10.95%) and has the same equity ratio as all other FPL capex."
That day, NextEra announced a partnership with Google to develop new gigawatt-scale data center hubs nationally, though none are thought to be coming to Florida. NextEra CEO John Ketchum called this "a golden age of power demand."
Bores says that FPL had 9 GWh in data center proposals "in advanced discussions," representing "customers who have completed an engineering study, and we believe we can begin serving as soon as 2028." He wouldn't talk about specifics, but the Palm Beach and St. Lucie County proposals likely are in that mix. FPL has 12 designated zones running along its 500 kV transmission lines, many running parallel to Florida's Turnpike, where it hopes to steer data center developers.
Project Tango's proposed location is close to both the transmission line and FPL's West County Energy Center in Loxahatchee.
THE CASE FOR
Florida has more than 100 data centers today, but none are anywhere near the size of what's to come. Most are 50 megawatts or less. Those relatively smaller data centers still can be 100,000 square feet and house hundreds of server racks. Businesses often rent space in such centers for their own servers.
But FPL expects that to change quickly. A 10-year site plan report published by the PSC in November says FPL projects data center total energy use could more than quadruple from 1,281 GWh in 2028 to 5,459 GWh by 2034.
The competition for dominance in artificial intelligence is "the next Manhattan Project — ensuring U.S. AI and energy leadership," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said last April when announcing 16 states with federal land "positioned for rapid data center construction, including in-place energy infrastructure with the ability to fast-track permitting for new energy generation such as nuclear." Florida is not among them.
"We don't need them here," says David Kelly, a University of Miami economics professor and co-chair of its Sustainable Business Research Cluster.
Adding data centers to the state still advances national security interests, says Kevin Doyle, vice president for southeast state operations for the Consumer Energy Alliance: "We've already ceded rare earth minerals and a bunch of other things to China and other countries. We're just starting to regain our energy footing when it comes to natural gas and other fuels. So the last thing we want to do is give the Chinese the ability to control data centers."
The Energy and Policy Institute, which calls itself a watchdog opposing the fossil fuel industry, describes the Alliance as "an advocacy front group for some of the country's largest fossil fuel corporations and trade associations." The Alliance posted a toolkit online last September that included fill-in-the-blank letters supporters could send to state and local officials welcoming "the responsible growth of data centers in Florida, which are critical to our economy, our national security and our electric reliability."
It also included results of a September survey of 800 Florida Republican voters, finding support after they're told of prospective benefits. Democrats and non-party voters weren't polled because of the Legislature's supermajorities, Doyle says. "Any policy that's going to be coming out of Tallahassee will be a Republican Party-driven policy decision."
There seems to be little debate about the tax revenue data centers can bring, especially when billions of dollars in infrastructure are built over agricultural and other rural lands. "In Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers supply nearly half of all property tax revenue. For every dollar invested in services for these data centers, the county receives $26 in return," the toolkit says.
Some local governments have used that money to help build affordable housing, says Fowler, the St. Lucie County Commission chair. Any surge in ad valorem revenue is "sort of an appetizing prospect" as Florida debates whether to eliminate or reduce homesteaded property taxes. While opponents "are always the ones louder than people are for it," she has constituents who are intrigued by the prospects.
"I have electricians, I have people in the trades — HVAC, diesel — they are excited for this," Fowler says. "They know they're going to see a surge in business."
One knock on data centers is that they're not huge job creators once operational. Greenberg Traurig shareholder Josh Forman, who has represented data centers nationally, pushes back, first noting that data centers tend to be built in phases, extending the construction window into years. And the 100 or so permanent jobs hyperscale centers bring are highpaying. One hundred jobs paying six figures in rural areas "would have material impact on the region."
In a brief submitted to the PSC supporting FPL's rate case, the Florida Energy for Innovation Association cited an economic impact analysis that projected St. Lucie County could see $13.5 billion in capital investment from one 1-gigawatt data center, along with $63 million in annual property tax revenue for its school system.
"Hyperscalers understand the need to be in Florida. It is such a compelling proposition — a competitive price, an efficient and dependable generation fleet and superior reliability. There is significant interest. We've already had more than 50 inquiries representing more than 20 gigawatts of power." — Scott Bores, president, Florida Power & Light, in a December investor presentation.
THE CONCERNS
David Kelly, a University of Miami economics professor and co-chair of its Sustainable Business Research Cluster, wonders why the state needs large-load data centers. "We don't have them now," he says. "When you use ChatGPT you're going to get an answer. It's not going to say, 'You're in Florida. Sorry, we don't have a data center there.' ... From the end user's point of view, there's no problem. We don't need them here."
Fears about spiraling electric bills drive much of the public anxiety. Dating back to last summer, Gov. Ron DeSantis channeled some of those concerns and in December he proposed an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights "to protect Floridians from footing the bill for Hyperscale AI Data Centers and to empower local governments to reject their development in their communities."
In response, FPL's Bores says, "I think we share a lot of the same ideals. That's why we've designed our tariff that protects the general body of customers." Some of it was structured after looking at what was happening elsewhere in the country "to understand the pain points."
He calls the package, which includes a 20-year contract, "the most innovative, forward-thinking customer protective tariff" in the country and notes it is non-negotiable. In addition to requiring developers to cover the full cost of any added electricity generation, FPL is requiring collateral or letters of credit to avoid stranded costs if a center doesn't attract tenants or shuts down. The package also includes a minimum bill provision to ensure customers don't pay for underutilized infrastructure.
Those requirements, Greenberg Traurig's Josh Forman says, "weed out who are the speculators and who are real. The utilities that understand the space are smart and not making financial commitments until they have those letters of credit."
Duke Energy Florida, which supplies power in parts of Northern and Central Florida, has a pending rate request before the PSC with similar tariffs. In response to an interview request, Duke issued a statement saying its tariff will have "minimum term lengths, security deposits, fees for system impact studies, minimum bill requirements and early termination penalties all (to) protect Duke Energy Florida's investments made to serve large load customers."
While that might sound reassuring, Public Counsel Walt Trierweiler, after reviewing FPL's proposals, warned that future data center demand is both speculative and uncertain. "Unforeseeable innovations in computing, such as quantum computing and the innovations that apparently resulted in the more energy-efficient (Chinese) DeepSeek AI model, could reduce the hardware and energy usages of data centers," he wrote. The PSC should not "acquiesce to the volatile technology and development insiders whose business may not even materialize. All gold rushes eventually end, and FPL's customers should not be the ones left bearing the stranded costs."
Bores and other utility leaders say that won't happen in Florida — that the requirement that data centers pay all the up-front costs to connect and operate protects the rest of the customer base. If a developer walks away midstream, infrastructure upgrades will remain, benefitting customers. Duke Energy's petition before the PSC claims "the addition of large-load customers can place downward pressure on rates for existing customers."
It's left to local officials to determine what to believe and what's the best option for their communities.
"With anything, the first of anything is always very scary," St. Lucie Commission Chair Fowler says. "... AI in itself is sort of this renaissance. We don't really know what it is. So the whole thing just adds that element of fear of the unknown that ... as humans we just don't like."
Florida Public Counsel Walt Trierweiler says the Public Service Commission should not "acquiesce to the volatile technology" and speculative nature of data center ventures. "All gold rushes eventually end, and FPL's customers should not be the ones left bearing the stranded costs."