(The Center Square) – One tire deal that went flat, two powerful data centers that never dialed in online.
The 400-acre Kingsboro mega site in North Carolina’s Edgecombe County isn’t a harbinger of the demanding energy industry sweeping the country. At multiple turns, there are data centers already in operation – about 4,700 according to Data Center Map that tracks such things – nationwide, with the Tarheel State nearing 100.
The state has volume increase in data centers in 2025 and 2026. It also has volume increase from community voices leading to a rise in moratoriums.
The Kingsboro site, however, just keeps getting left at the altar.
Triangle Tyre, a Chinese maker of tires, in 2017 planned a $580 million investment and 800 jobs strengthened by $152 million in incentives. Edgecombe offered $86 million in performance-based property tax rebates; the state had $66 million available. Triangle Tyre cited a focus on business needs in China four years ago when it pulled out of the deal.
Then came Natron Energy in August 2024. The maker for “high-powered applications like AI, data centers, peak shaving and power quality management” planned a $1.4 billion plant with 1,000 jobs lured by $129.6 million in incentives from Edgecombe County and $56.3 million from the state.
Last month, Energy Storage Solutions pulled its $19.2 billion project in Edgecombe County. Rather than a Job Development Investment Grant or incentive-laden package from the county, it opted for land options and put a cash deposit on a site in the Kingsboro Business Park.
The deposit has been refunded.
Across 300 acres, the data center developer planned a 900-megawatt energy storage campus that would have rated as one of the largest in the Southeast. And it would have matched its project in Fayetteville – 24 phases built out over three to five years, roughly one dozen 40,000-square-foot structures, and 1,000 employees.
The gas-powered “NetZero” facility there on Dunn Road remains in planning and proposal stages. Like Edgecombe County, there’s considerable community pushback in Cumberland County and regulation squabbles.
Back at Kingsboro, the total is three opportunities, three investments of nearly $21.2 billion, two incentive packages of $337.9 million, and 2,800 jobs – all awash. And this in a county rated Tier 1 for economic development, meaning among the state's 40 most distressed in measures of unemployment, income, population growth, and property wealth.
Across the state, plenty of pushback through municipal force and most triggered by the will of the taxpayers. Economic development is big money. Impact on water supply, electricity and quality of life are the top three factors.
In some form or fashion since September, published reports say moratoriums on data centers of one year or more are in the counties of Gates, Northampton, Harnett, Orange, Chatham, Rowan, Davie and Clay. More than a dozen cities since September have enacted anywhere from 60-day to one-year prohibitions: Boiling Springs Lakes, Spring Hope, Wendell, Holly Springs, Apex, Fayetteville, Durham, Charlotte, Kings Mountain, Boone, Asheville, Brevard, Canton and Franklin.
For context, the state has 100 counties and just over 1,100 municipal government units.
According to Data Center Maps, the state had 90 data centers on Jan. 1, 2025. Three were added last year, four thus far this year.
In polling March 19-22 by the Carolina Journal in conjunction with Harper Polling, 8 in 10 North Carolinians said facilities should be required to provide their energy generation for artificial intelligence data centers.
Data centers have had broad tax exemptions on operational resources. In this year’s state budget signed by first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein in July, Section 44.4 repealed the sales-and-use tax exemption on electricity sold for use at data centers.
Physical equipment and property still have tax breaks.
Prior to that, two proposals in the General Assembly this year stalled.
The Ratepayer Protection Act (Senate Bill 730), a Republican proposal, passed the originating chamber but came back from the House of Representatives with changes in June. The Datacenter Transparency Act (House Bill 1189), a proposal of Democrats, never got past the Rules Committee days after it was filed.
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