NC bill would add new data center regulations
A bill moving through the North Carolina General Assembly, Senate Bill 730, would impose new regulations on large data centers. These regulations include site assessments for noise and environmental impacts, water-use standards, and restrictions on foreign ownership from certain countries. The bill also addresses electricity costs for residential customers and prohibits local economic development incentives for new data centers.
North Carolina's Senate Bill 730 is progressing through the state's General Assembly, proposing new regulations for large data centers and making changes to energy policy. The legislation, which has passed the Senate and advanced through the House with amendments, is expected to head to a conference committee for final negotiation.
The bill mandates that developers of new data centers conduct site assessments to evaluate potential noise impacts on nearby homes and schools. It also allows local governments to require studies on the effects on water resources, air quality, farmland, parks, historic sites, and forests. A key provision requires new data centers to use water-minimizing cooling systems, with state regulators to establish water-use standards and prohibit evaporative cooling.
Furthermore, Senate Bill 730 aims to restrict ownership, prohibiting certain foreign governments and entities tied to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from owning data centers or their land in North Carolina. Existing foreign owners would need to register and would be barred from acquiring additional interests. The bill also requires electric service contracts for large data centers to protect residential and other utility customers from cost shifts and would ban local governments from offering economic development incentives or using eminent domain for data center land acquisition.
Beyond data centers, the bill includes broader energy policy measures, such as directing the North Carolina Collaboratory to study utility policies and carbon-neutrality goals' impact on electric bills, creating an expedited permitting process for energy infrastructure, and restricting the retirement of large power plants until new nuclear facilities are approved.