The rapid proliferation of datacenters imposes significant and often poorly understood demands on local energy and water systems. Loudoun County, Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of datacenters, has become a focal point for these challenges, as communities and utilities navigate infrastructure strain, rising costs, and environmental impacts.

This project aims to clarify both the challenges and opportunities of datacenter expansion. The team will partner with the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA), the regional water utility serving Loudoun County, to examine how datacenter siting, design, and operations—from energy sourcing to cooling technologies and water use—affect local communities. UOSA’s expertise in water resources, infrastructure planning, and community impacts will guide the research, connect the team with stakeholders, highlight knowledge gaps, and provide feedback on findings, ensuring the research reflects local realities and produces mutually beneficial insights.

The project will culminate in a white paper and a cross-disciplinary workshop to lay the groundwork for a broader research agenda on sustainable digital infrastructure. The team will also develop an open-source computational model of the datacenter–energy–water system to explore interconnected impacts. The model will reveal where energy and water demands align, creating opportunities for co-benefits such as reduced water use and lower emissions, and where they diverge, exposing tradeoffs and risks. Together, the white paper, workshop, and model will equip policymakers, utilities, and communities with actionable information to guide sustainable datacenter growth.

Project team: Rabab Haider, PI (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Nancy Love, co-I (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Amanda Ullman, co-I (Institute for Energy Solutions), Xiaofan Liang, co-I (Taubman College), Sarah Mills, co-I (Center for EmPowering Communities, Taubman College), Upper Occoquan Service Authority (External Partner)