The developer behind NC’s most ambitious data center sites is ready for a fight
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Developer proposes $19.2B and $6.4B data center campuses in Edgecombe.
- Tarboro council denied a $6.4B permit; company appealed to Superior Court.
- Developer plans on-site gas power and six gigawatts of contracted data center demand.
Daniel Shaffer has never built a data center, let alone a $19.2 billion campus that, if realized, would be among the priciest in the Southeastern United States.
But as president of Energy Storage Solutions in Rocky Mount, Shaffer says his company won’t just construct this data center in Eastern North Carolina’s Edgecombe County, but will open another $6.4 billion data center in the same county — and perhaps a third multibillion-dollar facility in Fayetteville.
He doesn’t plan to stop there either.
“We already have contracts in place for six gigawatts of data centers,” he told The News & Observer in a phone interview. For context, the larger of the two Edgecombe County facilities he envisions would offer up to 900 megawatts, less than a fifth of the power he says his clients desire.
Artificial intelligence and cloud computing have inspired a land rush among North Carolina developers seeking to open massive complexes that house rows upon rows of servers. Shaffer has positioned his company as an aggressive new entrant in this booming, if unsettled, field. And he’s shown an appetite for fighting back against local opposition.
Shaffer is a Martin County resident and Army veteran in his 70s. He developed solar power and energy storage projects in the Southeast before the market potential of data centers led him to start Energy Storage Solutions in April 2024. His company aims to build “behind the meter” hyperscale campuses that use natural gas to generate their own power on site. “(We) operate large systems that the (energy) grid currently cannot support,” he said.
Though his next data center would be his first, Shaffer says the primary contractor Energy Storage Solutions uses “has been building data centers for years.”
Edgecombe County, or at least part of Edgecombe County, is excited to find out if Shaffer can deliver. On Nov. 3, the local county board of commissioners amended its unified development ordinance to explicitly permit data center and cryptocurrency mining operations in select unincorporated parts of the rural county, 60 miles east of Raleigh.
One of the areas it greenlit for data centers is the county-owned Kingsboro Industrial Park, where Energy Storage Solutions is proposing to build a $19.2 billion campus. The company has offered to buy 20 acres at this site, Edgecombe County manager Eric Evans says, with an option for 100 more.
“The county is waiting for them to have the funding in place,” Evans said. “The company is working with investors to get all of that on paper.”
Tarboro tussle
Ten miles down U.S. Highway 64, Energy Storage Solutions aims to build a second Edgecombe County data center in the county seat of Tarboro. Unlike the Kingsboro project, this facility was officially rejected by its local government.
During a contentious hearing in September, during which several county residents voiced displeasure with the data center proposal, the Tarboro City Council voted 6-1 against issuing Energy Storage Solutions a special-use permit to construct a $6.4 billion hyperscale data center on 52 acres zoned for heavy industrial use.
“The serene environment, character, and community cohesion we cherish in Tarboro could be dramatically altered by the presence of such a massive facility,” read an online petition urging the town council not to support the plans.
Special-use permits, or SUPs, allow municipalities to approve land uses that may comply with zoning ordinances if the projects meet certain criteria. Local governments must rule on SUPs through a quasi-judicial process that can require town councils to act more like impartial courts than political legislative bodies.
On Nov. 13, Energy Storage Solutions appealed Tarboro’s rejection to Edgecombe County Superior Court. “The record shows numerous errors of law committed by the town council,” its appeal states. Energy Storage Solutions claims the council allowed “the evidentiary hearing to devolve into a town hall meeting and political referendum.”
“We think that there’s a possibility of a settlement here,” Shaffer said. “Otherwise, we’re going to proceed until we win.”
Tarboro Mayor Tate Mayo said his town intends to defend its vote and has hired outside legal representation. Yet he acknowledged the council lacked experience at conducting this summer’s quasi-judicial hearing.
“None of us have law degrees,” Mayo told The N&O in a phone interview. “If it needs to be a judicial matter, it needs to be handled by the judiciary.”
Mayo recused himself during the hearing, saying his view of the project was inevitably biased by his constituents’ opposition. While the data center could provide property tax revenue, Tarboro’s mayor remains wary.
“You can’t go strictly on a dollar sign in dealing with any matter,” Mayo said.
Many North Carolina residents have rallied to block other recent data center proposals, and community members in Apex continue to gin up grassroots pressure. Complaints have included noise, aesthetics and fears that energy-intensive data centers will increase household utility bills.
The money entering this sector may make other projects undeniable. In September, the Statesville City Council unanimously approved a data center to open on several hundred acres of former farmland. Then in late October, Amazon broke ground on a planned $10 billion facility in Richmond County to facilitate cloud computing and AI.
Shaffer, too, is eyeing facilities beyond Edgecombe; the developer said his team is in “very preliminary” talks to build a data center in Fayetteville. Asked whether the price tag of this possible facility would be closer to the $6.4 billion site in Tarboro or the nearby $19.2 billion site, Shaffer said the latter.
