Aberdeen Data Center, Manchester, Ohio

Amazon Web Services' Aberdeen data center would rise in Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, about two miles from the village of Manchester, though the public did not learn Amazon was behind it until opponents' records requests uncovered it. A February 3, 2026 filing from AES Ohio to grid operator PJM says the project, near the former Stuart power plant, would draw 100 megawatts of power starting in 2028, rising to 1.3 gigawatts by March 2032, and the US Army Corps of Engineers has since issued a permit for construction. Adams County's own project webpage says Amazon is evaluating the county, will fund the energy and infrastructure the data center needs, and expects the campus to create at least 500 long-term jobs from a $10 billion investment.

At that size the project would use about 11.4 million megawatt hours of electricity a year, roughly 31 times Adams County's entire 2025 consumption, according to WCPO's analysis of the AES filing. Ben Murray, a Food & Water Watch researcher who is building a house on family land near Manchester, has helped lead the opposition; he said emails about the project went back to 2024, but the developer "remained entirely nameless and faceless until the records requests found that it's going to be an Amazon data center." In February 2026 Sprigg Township trustees agreed to a one-year voluntary pause with the developer, and neighboring Monroe Township passed a binding one-year moratorium; both townships have since started zoning processes that could restrict where a data center could be built. "The voluntary pause and the initiating of the zoning, those came about just because people spoke up and turned out to these meetings," Murray said.