A map built from US Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office and National Renewable Energy Laboratory data shows where America's data centers are concentrated and how their power needs are straining the electric grid, according to Visual Capitalist. Loudoun County, Virginia, home to the corridor known as Data Center Alley, tops the list with nearly 6,000 megawatts of active data center capacity and another 6,300 megawatts already planned.

The area around Ashburn, Virginia handles roughly 70 percent of the world's internet traffic on a daily basis, making it the largest concentration of internet infrastructure in the country. States such as Virginia, Texas, and Oregon have drawn heavy data center investment in part because they combine competitive electricity pricing with relatively stable grid infrastructure. Nationwide, US data center energy consumption is on pace to double by 2030, adding pressure to transmission lines and generation resources in the regions where campuses are clustered.

The pattern is playing out across the Southeast as well, where new campuses are increasingly sited based on proximity to substations and available transmission capacity. Grid operators are treating power availability, rather than land or construction timelines, as the primary constraint on how fast new data center capacity can come online.

Source: Visual Capitalist - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-network-powering-us-data-centers/