Home/United States/West Virginia/Putnam County
Data centers in Putnam County, West Virginia: 1 project mapped
Buffalo is boxed in. The Kanawha River runs to its west, a hillside to its east, and Toyota's decades-old plant to its south. In March 2026 Google bought land at the town's north end, about 1,700 acres on both sides of Route 62 at 22272 Charleston Road, for a data center campus. "We can't grow. We can't go either way," Mayor Conrad Cain told WSAZ, though he said he was "tickled to death" about the project and had heard about it only the day before it was announced. Both parcels had long been owned by Appalachian Power. The Google site's appeal was the 765-kilovolt Appalachian Power line that already runs through it. Unlike the gas-microgrid projects elsewhere in West Virginia, Google would draw its power from the grid, which state Sen. Glen Jeffries said would come from the coal-fired John Amos plant a few miles up the river.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced the purchase and said Google had been approved for a multibillion-dollar "high impact" development project under the state's 2025 data center law. He said Google would cover 100% of the electricity it uses and pay for any electric, water and sewer upgrades, and that the company has pledged to replenish more water than it consumes by 2030. Google itself said it was "early in the process." A spokesperson said it was too early to say how much water or power the campus would use or what kind of power. The company is still studying whether the site is viable. Google did not say how much it paid or release its certification application. County Commission President Andy Skidmore said the acreage could hold up to four data centers.
Read more
Residents are less sure. "I had brain cancer in 2012. So I do not want to live next to something like that," Chad Minamyer told WSAZ. "We don't know the long-term health effects of living near something like that." Heather Ransom of Pliny organized a town hall in Buffalo in April 2026 to plan opposition, citing "the lack of transparency, the potential financial burden, and then of course the health and environmental impact." Under House Bill 2014 the county cannot apply local zoning to a certified project. Nearly all the information developers file for certified projects is kept from the public, and 70% of the property tax goes to the state rather than to Putnam County.
No size, cost, job count, emissions figure or timeline has been made public. What happens next depends on Google's own due diligence on the site, and on details that Appalachian Power says will be shared with the public "at the appropriate time."
Data center projects on record in Putnam County
Grouped by the town each site sits in. The report above may name projects that have no record here yet.
Buffalo1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Buffalo Data CenterBuffalo | Proposed | Not reported |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
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.