Data Center Maps: A Register of What Exists, What Works, and Where It Fails
146 resources that map, track or inventory data centers, nationally and in depth for Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee, each graded from recommended to avoid for research. No resource is a census: trackers that publish state counts disagree by wide margins, change between editions without notes, and mix buildings, campuses, projects and permits as their unit of record. The gap no map fills statewide is the local zoning decision, ordinance or moratorium behind each site.
A register of 146 resources that map, track or inventory data centers, nationally and in depth for Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee: commercial trackers, federal and state datasets, county GIS layers, advocacy maps, press interactives, academic datasets, and the context layers researchers lay over them. Each resource is recorded on 22 fields and graded on a four-step scale (recommended, useful with caveats, limited, avoid for research), with what it does well, where it falls short, and the date it was checked.
No resource is a census. Trackers that publish state counts disagree by wide margins, move between editions without change notes, and mix buildings, campuses, projects and permits as their unit of record. The report identifies the gap no map fills statewide, joining each site to the local zoning decision, ordinance or moratorium that governs it, and sets out what a better map would take, with Prince William County's Build-Out Analysis map as the closest existing template.
Files: Data_Center_Maps_Briefing.pdf , a two-page summary with a coverage matrix; Data_Center_Maps_Register_v0_1.pdf , the full report and register, with method and scoring rubric; DC_Map_Resources_Register_v0_1.xlsx , the register as a filterable workbook with a sheet for each state. Resources were checked on 28 September 2026; each figure carries the date its source gives.