(The Center Square) – Another large data center company is eying Georgia, this time in Coweta County.
The $17 billion project dubbed “Project Sail” from Atlas Development LLC would add nearly $1.6 billion in annual local tax revenue, Coweta County officials said in an email to The Center Square.
The first hurdle is a rezoning request for 833.92 acres from rural conservation to light industrial located at U.S. 27 and Welcome to Sargent Road in Newnan. The company held a preapplication submittal meeting with Coweta County Community Development to discuss the process, Coweta County officials said. The company has also filed a development of regional impact form with the Department of Community Affairs.
More than 50 companies have data centers in the Peach State, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The state has an attractive tax package. In 2022, lawmakers extended a sales and use tax exemption for high-technology data center equipment through Dec. 31, 2031. Companies must meet a minimum investment threshold to qualify. For Coweta County, the threshold is $250 million and the addition of 25 new jobs, according to the law.
Some have raised concerns over the amount of energy needed to run the centers.
Legislators tried to sunset the tax incentives for two years and take time to assess energy use. House Bill 1192, passed earlier this year, would have also created the Special Commission of Data Center Energy Planning. The 14-member panel would have reviewed the current electric grid and energy supply and “make recommendations for data center location, based on such review and consideration of fiber, water, labor, and latency related to data centers,” according to the bill.
But the bill was vetoed by Gov. Brian Kemp.
“The bill’s language would prevent the issuance of exemption certificates after an abrupt July 1, 2024, deadline for many customers of projects that are already in development—undermining the investments made by high-technology data center operators, customers, and other stakeholders in reliance on the recent extension, and inhibiting important infrastructure and job development,” Kemp said in his veto message.
Data centers are behind a need for more energy, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Jack Kemp Foundation.
“Data center development has had a greater impact in Virginia–especially Northern Virginia–than in the rest of the country, but similar patterns of growth are emerging in other states such as Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, and Arizona,” the November 2024 report said. “Georgia Power estimates that it needs to bring an additional 6.6 GW of power on the grid by 2030, which is over 10 times more than its estimate just 18 months earlier.”
