Data centers in South Carolina: 14 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

South Carolina has no state rules for data centers, so its counties are writing their own. On September 21 Spartanburg County voted 5-1 for a one-year freeze on data centers larger than 65 megawatts, and Jasper County unanimously approved a one-year moratorium the same night. York, Chester, Newberry, Greenwood and Chesterfield counties have already paused new projects.

Spartanburg's freeze does not touch the Valara data center under construction on South Pine Street, and residents said the 65-megawatt limit leaves the door open to big projects. "If you let one in, you let them all in," one told the council. Residents there already stopped one project: TigerDC withdrew its application for Project Spero in February. In Colleton County, lawmakers of both parties opposed Eagle Rock Partners' proposed gigawatt campus near the ACE Basin.

The biggest projects under construction are QTS's 400-acre campus near Lake Wylie in York County, where neighbors have renewed complaints, and Meta's data center in Aiken County. Sen. Tom Davis's bill to license data centers by size, require yearly water reports and make them pay for their own power did not reach a floor vote. "I understand counties, absent the state implementing these baseline protections, simply taking the approach that they don't want data centers built until we have safeguards in place," he said.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.