When the Cloud Lands in Small Towns: The Promise and Pitfalls of Data Centers

In today’s digital gold rush, data centers are sprouting across America’s landscape, often choosing smaller towns and rural communities as their new home base. These massive facilities—housing the servers that power everything from cloud computing to artificial intelligence—are reshaping places once known for farming, manufacturing, or even prisons. But like any big development, they come with both benefits and drawbacks.

Explore where data centers are located across the U.S. here: Data Center Map.

The Benefits

• Economic Boost & Jobs

  • In Quincy, Washington, tech giants have built sprawling data centers powered by the Columbia River’s hydroelectric energy. The influx has created construction jobs and permanent positions in IT, security, and maintenance. Similarly,

  • Umatilla, Oregon has seen economic revival after years of stagnation, with Amazon’s facilities breathing new life into the community.

• Tax Revenue & Local Investment

  Hosting a data center can significantly increase local tax bases.

  • In Newton County, Georgia, Meta’s Stanton Springs campus has generated millions in tax revenue, funding schools and infrastructure.

• Prestige & Visibility

  • Suddenly, a small town becomes part of the global digital economy. Communities like Culpeper County, Virginia, once known for horse farms, now host hyperscale facilities that attract other tech-related businesses.

• Infrastructure Improvements

  To support data centers, towns often see upgrades in broadband, roads, and utilities—benefits that ripple out to residents and small businesses. Rural Florida communities, for example, have welcomed data centers as a way to expand fiber networks and stabilize local economies.

The Cons

• Energy Demands

  Data centers are energy-hungry. In 2023, they consumed about 4% of total U.S. electricity, a figure projected to rise to 6–12% by 2030. For small towns, this can strain local grids and raise utility costs.

• Water Usage

  Cooling servers requires vast amounts of water. In Quincy, residents worry about the long-term sustainability of water-intensive cooling systems in an already dry region.

• Environmental Concerns

  Without renewable energy integration, data centers can increase carbon footprints and undermine sustainability goals.

• Land & Community Impact

  These facilities are enormous, sometimes dwarfing the towns they settle in. Residents may worry about aesthetics, noise, or losing farmland to industrial use.

• Unequal Benefits

  While tax revenue grows, the number of permanent jobs is often modest compared to the hype. Communities must weigh whether the trade-off is worth it.

The Small-Town Balancing Act

For smaller towns, welcoming a data center is both an opportunity and a challenge. The key lies in negotiating smart agreements: ensuring renewable energy commitments, transparent water usage, and community reinvestment. Done right, data centers can be catalysts for rural revitalization. Done poorly, they risk draining resources and leaving locals with more costs than benefits.

From Quincy to Umatilla to Newton County, rural America is learning that data centers can be both a blessing and a burden. Small towns should approach them with cautious optimism—embracing the chance to join the digital economy while demanding sustainability and fairness.