Coverage of the development of data centers in West Virginia has generated a great deal of discussion over their role and impact, but little has been reported as of yet about their expected revenue benefits to local government.
One of the fears that some share about their development in West Virginia comes from the history of industrialization between the Civil War and World War I. Industrial Revolution development in West Virginia focused mainly on “upstream” development, including the extraction of timber and coal resources, mostly for use elsewhere.
Coal went to Pittsburgh and Baltimore for steel. Timber was often shipped to paper mills situated a few miles on the wrong side of the West Virginia State Line. While mills did produce boards, much of the product went out of state for further refining.
The natural gas industry, among many others, uses a river metaphor to describe points of production. Upstream refers to the extraction phase, midstream to transportation and storage, and downstream the phase of refinement and distribution.
Constructing data centers as a market for West Virginia power plants, who themselves serve as markets for West Virginia coal, natural gas, solar, and wind power production, encompasses the entire “river.” Unlike in the Industrial Revolution where the state extracted and shipped out, the Mountain State now encompasses the entirety of the economic benefit.
One of the most understated factors, however, lies in the expected revenues to come from these centers.
Delegate Daniel Linville (R-Cabell) posted on his site an automatic calculator to show the tax revenue benefits that could accrue to local schools and County governments if they hosted a data center in their county. State law requires that these centers also pay County levies as well. They also, according to HB 2014 (2025) cannot enter into any payment in lieu of taxes arrangements
Additionally, if the new data center is located in another county, 10 percent of revenues from that get distributed amongst the 54 other counties in the state. Those go to County governments.
The calculator estimates revenues based on centers up to eight gigawatts in power. Most in West Virginia will be smaller than that due to land limitations.
If a one gigawatt data center located in Hardy County, $16,063,200 would go directly to the Hardy County Schools. The Hardy County Commission would receive $11,020,680 to put into the cost of County services and any other needs.
If Hardy County had a levy of any sort, the data center would have to pay its full share. For example, if a one gigawatt center opened in Mineral County, it would also receive a base revenue for its schools of just over $16 million, just like Hardy County. It would then receive an additional $63.3 million for beneficiaries of its levy.
If a one gigawatt center was constructed in any other county in West Virginia, the Hardy County Commission would receive just over $32,000. The center proposed for Tucker County will likely open with two GW capacity that will increase over time. That alone would provide Hardy County initially with just over $64,000 a year.
As more data centers are constructed, each county will continue to see its shares in that revenue add up annually.
The revenues expected from data centers only represent one section of the larger picture that involves the natural resource extraction and also power generation industries within the state. Counties that host natural gas wells and coal mining operations will see benefits from expanded production, as well as those seeing development in power generation.
