Whether I’m talking to data center operators or real estate developers, a common question is: “What’s the next big market?”
It’s a great question because the major data center markets of the past aren’t guaranteed anything. Only a dozen years ago, the New York City area was the go-to location for data centers. Four years later, Loudoun County, Virginia, overtook NYC as the place for data centers to be, and Northern Virginia has been at the forefront ever since. Now it’s reached the point where parts of the region are approaching maximum capacity. Even in the southern reaches of the area, electrical transmission constraints are possible.
The power constraint story is playing out across the developed world. From Silicon Valley to Dallas and Chicago to Ireland, the electrical transmission infrastructure (and its regulation) is not built for rapid growth. Electricity access will be the driving factor over the next five to ten years.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Zorn, Director of Technology & Special Projects, based in Northern Virginia. He previously spent over 20 years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he ultimately served as the Director of Social Sciences leading research on consumer responses to labeling, public health messaging, and the economic impacts of FDA policies. He has published papers on quantitative risk assessment and data quality. For Mangum Economics, David has been the primary author of scores of data center impact analyses across the United States and Mexico. His reports show how data centers benefit state and local economies. He has extensive knowledge of and contacts in the industry that are essential at keeping the data center analyses current and accurate.
