Straight answers
The questions people actually ask.
Two-minute answers, each linked to the page with the full evidence and sources. If your question isn't here, the city accepts questions directly at datacenter@pikevilleky.gov.
What exactly is being proposed in Pikeville?
A data center at the Kentucky Enterprise Industrial Park: an initial phase of roughly 25–30 MW of computing capacity and over $250 million in capital investment, with developer interest in growing to 75–100 MW if more power becomes available. The developer, MD Squared Power LLC of Lexington, has not yet signed the end user who would actually operate it.2
Has anything been decided yet?
Will my electric bill go up?
It depends on contract and tariff terms, not on whether the data center exists. Near big clusters, wholesale prices rose as much as 267%,55 but Kentucky’s new large-load tariffs make very large customers pay at least 80% of forecast costs for 15 years,58 and Kentucky Power argues large loads can spread fixed costs and eventually lower rates.64 Rates are set by the state Public Service Commission, not the city.2
How loud will it be?
It depends on cooling design, distance, and whether numeric noise limits get written into the agreement. The bad cases elsewhere (Granbury, Texas; Chandler, Arizona) were continuous cooling-fan hum, and the documented fixes were engineering retrofits and enforceable decibel limits at the property line.3840 The proposed site sits inside an industrial park; the map shows exactly how far the nearest homes are.
How much water would it use?
The cooling design decides, by a factor of about fifty. Open evaporative cooling at this scale could draw hundreds of thousands of gallons a day; sealed-loop designs use about as much as an office park.100102 The city says its system can comfortably meet the described usage and is independently verifying the projections, but the design isn’t committed in writing yet.2
Is a data center a health risk?
There’s no documented case of a normally operating data center harming community health; air testing around the most controversial U.S. facility found no dangerous levels.80 The evidence-based watch items are diesel exhaust from backup generators (a known carcinogen, so permitted runtime hours matter76) and chronic noise, which is itself a documented health stressor.99
How many jobs would it create?
The developer projects 190+ construction jobs and 40 permanent positions at the initial phase, at wages described as well above the Pike County median, and the city itself says projections are not enforceable obligations and will need real enforcement mechanisms in any agreement.2 Research elsewhere finds data centers create few permanent on-site jobs relative to their size.17
What does the city get out of it financially?
Several streams. Property taxes on the computing equipment, which the city says it will not waive2: roughly $1.80 per $100 of value across state, county, city, and school rates, and the school district collects the largest share.148 A 3% franchise fee Kentucky Power pays the city on all electric sales inside city limits, which a data center’s power purchases would add several hundred thousand dollars a year to.149 Plus occupational taxes, utility revenue, and whatever lease or host payments get negotiated. For scale: the city’s entire general fund collected about $21.4 million in FY2024.137
Who decides whether this happens?
How can I verify any of this myself?
Every claim on this site carries a numbered citation. And beyond that, Kentucky’s Open Records Act gives any Kentucky resident the right to inspect public records. Agencies must respond within five business days, must cite a specific exemption to withhold anything, and denials can be appealed to the Attorney General at no cost.151152