As hotspot states like Virginia become more saturated — with about a quarter of that state’s power demand coming from data centers already — the industry is looking to spread out. Tech companies have already launched projects in other Southeast states — including multiple Amazon data centers in Mississippi and one that will be the largest data center in the Western Hemisphere in Louisiana.
So why hasn’t Florida, a state with a business-friendly tax climate and plenty of open land not been heavily targeted by the data center industry? And what signs are there that some projects could already be in the works?
Here are three things to know about how the industry views the state:
One factor has made tech companies hesitant about Florida.
Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, a national industry group, said that there’s a list of factors tech companies consider when looking for where to build their next data center: access to power, a skilled workforce, land, plus the tax and regulatory climate.
“We have not yet seen large-scale development in Florida, but as we look at demand drivers and opportunities for where the industry can continue to grow, I do think Florida is in that conversation,” Diorio said.
The Data Center Coalition’s members include the biggest players in the industry, the four “hyperscalers:” Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Meta. It also represents AI firms like Oracle and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, plus “multi-tenant data centers,” where companies ranging from banking to health care can rent servers to operate their apps and other digital programs.
One big reason why the data center boom hasn’t arrived in Florida yet, according to the coalition, is hurricanes — and the disruptions they bring to the electric grid.
As the data center industry advances, though, Diorio said hurricanes may pose less of a problem, making Florida more viable. He argued the industry could help the state better withstand storms.
Because data centers consume large amounts of power, their electric bill payments can provide a windfall for utility companies, Diorio said. Utilities could then use those funds to upgrade the grid to make it more resilient to storms.
There are big affordability and environmental concerns.
Politicians across the country, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have expressed growing skepticism about data centers’ potential to drive up electricity costs for residents. At least six states, from New York to Georgia, have proposed moratoriums on new data center construction while policymakers work to catch up to a boom they said has hurt their constituents.
In the face of this pushback, the industry has said it’s willing to cover utility costs to ensure they don’t trickle down to residents and instead ensure data centers bring jobs and economic benefits to communities.
Diorio said the industry has also been hurt by misconceptions that data centers are only used for AI and not for everyday products.
“The average household has 21 connected devices,” he said. “You have laptops and phones. You have multiple smart TVs, smart thermostats, Ring doorbells, garage doors, lights — my oven’s connected to WiFi. All of that requires digital infrastructure.”
“Data centers are are everything we do every day,” Diorio added. “It’s how we work, it’s how we learn, it’s how we communicate.”
Lawmakers in Tallahassee have been discussing bills to regulate data centers and protect consumers.
One topic at issue is whether it should be illegal for government employees to sign nondisclosure agreements with data center companies, which can prevent public officials from being able to discuss details about planned facilities with their own constituents. The bill would prohibit this practice.
But the industry argues nondisclosure agreements are an essential part of developing their plans in the early stages.
“NDAs are a very common tool used in economic development by industries of all shapes and sizes,” Diorio said. “How do you approach economic development if a company is not able to come in and properly evaluate sites and have conversations before they even decide whether or not they’re going to move forward?”
Data centers also bring environmental concerns, in large part because of their huge demand for water, which can stretch into the millions of gallons per day.
Shaolei Ren, a professor at the University of California, Riverside who specializes in the water use of data centers, said they’re already straining the system in some places.
“Most communities in the U.S. don’t have the available surplus capacity to support this level of demand,” he said.
The facilities can also increase air pollution. As more data centers plug into the Florida grid, they’ll be consuming power that is mostly produced by burning natural gas, the source of about three-quarters of the state’s electricity and a producer of greenhouse gases.
Some data centers also rely on diesel-fueled generators for additional power, Ren said, which emit black smoke that can harm the health of nearby residents.
Some large data center projects are already in the works in Florida.
While the data center industry waits to see how aggressively the Florida Legislature will regulate them, that hasn’t stopped proposals from popping up. In many cases, the early plans do not disclose which companies would be operating the data centers.
Citrus County commissioners earlier this month discussed forming new guidelines for a potential data center project on roughly 813 acres in Lecanto, according to the Citrus County Chronicle. Property records show at least some of the land is owned by a real estate company, Deltona Corporation, which asked the county to change local planning rules for the area.
A 1,100-acre data center campus has also been pitched in Fort Meade, about 40 minutes south of Lakeland in Polk County. A proposed 200-acre facility in Palm Beach County called Project Tango has drawn community pushback.
And when Florida Power & Light went before state regulators last year to request a hike to its electricity rates, a group called the Florida Energy for Innovation Association intervened to advocate for data centers. The group’s lawyer, D. Bruce May, said at the time that he represented companies that have signed confidential agreements with Florida Power & Light to explore building data centers in the state. He did not name the companies.
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