Google’s plan to build a local data center should not create fears of a northern Virginia style explosion of buzzing complexes around 3,300-resident Daleville.

The June 24 deal, with its 10-digit investment in Botetourt County, ranks with many previous investments announced in the Washington, D.C. area, the world capital of data centers.

But the number of large data centers this region can accommodate is limited by how much electricity and water is available to support the current generation of resource-hungry computer facilities, according to those interviewed for this story. Only a few additional sites could be equipped, the current thinking goes, far less than the northern area with its 150-plus centers.

 A few days after the announcement, the county released a developer’s signed agreement to spend at least $1 billion on each of one or more data centers it eventually chooses to construct — the largest industrial announcement the region has seen.

“We're absolutely confident it'll be a transformative investment for the region,” said John Hull, who directs the Roanoke Regional Partnership, the industrial marketing office funded by local governments and private sector supporters.

“I think the opportunity is actually much more broad than just additional data centers. I think this is a brand-new sector to all of Western Virginia. That means new suppliers, construction specialties, technology interests, just all over the map,” he said.

The digital services industry needs more computing power for rapid expansion. Google operates one or more centers in 35 locations in 11 countries, with the closest center to Botetourt County situated in Lenoir, North Carolina, according to its website. Its data center map lists several more as “in development." 

County officials said they sold 312 acres in an industrial park for the project for $14 million June 20. Online real estate records, which sometimes do not reflect recent transactions, did not show the sale as complete as of midday Tuesday.

“Botetourt offers the space, infrastructure and skilled workforce that innovative companies like Google demand,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a press release. “This move signals the industry’s growing interest in expanding beyond Northern Virginia and highlights the county’s strong commitment to smart growth.”

Formed through the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition has urged state officials to learn more about how data centers impact the electrical grid, water, air and land.

Julie Bolthouse, the council’s land use director, said she believes Google and similar companies are looking for sites, such as Botetourt's, outside northern Virginia.

"They can build bigger. They can build cheaper," she said.

Carl Bivens, a veteran energy development attorney at the Atlanta-based law firm Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, confirmed that he signed a 19-page performance agreement with Botetourt officials for the potential development of data centers on behalf of Helio Capital LLC. Google, the Mountain View, Calif., technology company, isn’t mentioned by name in the agreement, but a county press release said Google is involved.

Bivens declined to comment on the project.

If it’s true that the developers of data centers that are common in suburbs around Washington, D.C., are turning to the west and south and to the Roanoke Valley to keep building, they’ll need sites.

Appalachian Power has electricity for large-scale industry available at three industrial sites in or near Roanoke, spokesman George Porter said. One is the Wood Haven Technology Park near where Interstates 81 and 581 meet. And further west, the utility touts Roanoke County’s Center for Research and Technology. The third is Summit View Business Park in Franklin County. 

All three appear on a statewide list of 11 properties in APCO’s Virginia service area where it could accommodate a “large-load” user such as a data center. That’s a continuous user of 100 or more megawatts of electricity. APCO is not saying it could support data centers at all 11 sites, just that it has significant power generation and distribution resources available in 11 places right now, Porter said. 

Though the Google site in Daleville isn’t listed, Botetourt County officials said their Botetourt Center at Greenfield business park has a substation and that Google will pay for improvements it may need. In addition, Google has contracted to buy power generated by the planned Rocky Forge wind farm about 20 miles to the northeast of Greenfield.

Officials at the Western Virginia Water Authority, like those at APCO, are studying how to accommodate data centers in the region. Authority Director Mike McEvoy said it has the capacity to furnish Google’s planned center with water if Google goes with that option. The authority could likely serve a few more large, water-cooled centers after that, he said. Data centers can also be cooled by air or a chemical solution.

Even Hull said he thinks any more data centers that might come in after Google’s planned campus will need to be limited to "smaller packages...perhaps.”

Neither the power company nor the water authority would specify the amount of electricity and water the project might need. By the time of the Botetourt County announcement, project representatives had already persuaded electricity and water officials to sign non-disclosure agreements. McEvoy signed a secrecy deal with the Google project back in March 2024.

In announcing the project, a Botetourt County statement said, “If developed, a Google data center campus would yield significant revenues for the future and opportunities to expand community projects across Botetourt County.  

In addition to the land payment, the project developer agreed to pay local real estate taxes starting this year and to contribute $4 million during the next five years to a long list of community needs. Officials expect an initial $1.1 million check in late August and plan to buy three new ambulances with the money. Future gifts will buy heart monitors for rescue personnel, police body cameras and, using proceeds from the land sale, a new events center, according to the agreement, which contains a complete list of what the Google money should buy.

Helio expects to begin building next year and complete one data center in 2028, according to the agreement. It can build more than one center if it wants, provided that “the Company shall make a Capital Investment of not less than One Billion Dollars ($1,000,000,000.00) in development of each Data Center on the Property,” the agreement said.

Each data center built will employ at least 50 full-time workers at a median salary of $86,000, according to the agreement. 

However, Helio “may delay, or choose not to, develop a Data Center on the Property,” it said.  If the company doesn’t finish building a data center by June 2030, Google will be off the hook from those investment and job pledges, but the county can keep the money gifts designated for community needs, under the deal. 

Rambler staffers Henri Gendreau and Todd Jackson contributed to this report.