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Vermont Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Vermont — updated daily.
Recent Vermont data center news
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Top Environmental Victories of 2025
The Sierra Club announces a roundup of its top environmental victories in 2025.
- Major announced actions: The article catalogs specific legal, legislative, and advocacy wins including: stopping a proposed public-lands sell-off after Congressional withdrawal; passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act in New York (following Vermont in 2024) and introduced bills in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Maine; legal victories blocking Commonwealth LNG (coastal use permit terminated) and two lawsuits creating guardrails on data centers in Kansas and Michigan; NEVI program restart unlocking $2.7 billion for EV charging; and a $744 million jury verdict against Chevron for coastal damages in Louisiana.
- Background and additional details: The piece lists species and land protections (Northern Rockies wolves, Colorado bison, Rice’s whales), closure of Merrimack Station (final New England coal plant) and repeal of an Ohio coal-bailout that would have cost nearly half a billion dollars, passage of Utah’s balcony solar law allowing small plug-in systems without utility approval, a coalition delivering ~500,000 public comments to defend the Roadless Rule (including 40,000 from Sierra Club advocates), and a world-record origami action sending more than 86,000 paper fish to oppose Enbridge’s Line 5.
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The Five Types of Electro-Industrial States
Rocky Mountain Institute presents a typology classifying US states into five electro-industrial archetypes.
- Main announcement/action: RMI authors classify states into five archetypes — Momentum Hubs (Arizona, California), Fast‑Track Builders (Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio, Idaho), Policy Champions (New York, Michigan, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania), Open‑Door Starters (Vermont, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Iowa), and Early‑Stage Starters (Missouri, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Maine, Alabama, Louisiana, Indiana, West Virginia, Montana, Arkansas). The typology is based on policy reliability, regulatory ease, economic capacity, physical infrastructure (power and interconnection), and market momentum.
- Background and details: The analysis highlights that market momentum and policy reliability should operate in tandem; low regulatory burdens accelerate short-term investment but may strain local housing and infrastructure without accompanying policy ambition. The authors reference the report GREASE Lightning as a policy playbook for designing investment-led, state-driven electro-industrial strategies.
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Hurricanes in 2024 led to the most hours without power in the United States in 10 years
U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that U.S. electricity customers experienced an average of 11 hours of electricity interruptions in 2024, nearly twice the annual average of the previous decade.
- Main finding: The EIA’s Electric Power Annual 2024 shows U.S. customers averaged 11 hours of interruptions in 2024; Hurricanes Beryl, Helene, and Milton accounted for 80% of hours without electricity, and interruptions attributed to major events averaged nearly 9 hours in 2024 versus nearly 4 hours (2014–2023). The report uses industry metrics SAIDI and SAIFI to characterize outages.
- Details & state impacts: The report cites South Carolina averaged nearly 53 hours without power in 2024; Hurricane Beryl left 2.6 million Texas customers without power (July), Hurricane Helene left 5.9 million customers across 10 states (with at least 1.2 million in South Carolina), and Hurricane Milton left 3.4 million Florida customers without power; Hawaii averaged 4.4 interruptions, while several states (Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, Massachusetts) averaged less than 2 hours of interruptions.
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Climate Change Solutions - July 29, 2025
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) newsletter highlights recent climate change solutions, legislative updates, and upcoming events.
- Innovative technologies such as AI-driven disaster resilience tools by U.S. National Laboratories and upgraded air filters to reduce wildfire smoke injuries are featured.
- Legislative progress includes the Hydropower Licensing Transparency Act passed by the House, the La Paz County Solar Energy and Job Creation Act advancing with job creation and solar capacity details, and the Fire Ready Nation Act advancing in the Senate to enhance wildfire forecasting.
- Upcoming briefings focus on Ohio River restoration and the intersection of AI and climate policy.
- The newsletter also provides links to recordings of the 28th annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and related policy forums.
- EESI President Daniel Bresette is quoted on energy and AI topics; contact details and social media links for EESI are provided.
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Data Center Energy Needs Could Upend Power Grids and Threaten the Climate
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the energy consumption and sustainability challenges posed by rapidly increasing data centers in the United States.
- As of March 2025, there were 5,426 data centers nationally, consuming about 17 GW of power in 2022, with projections to increase to 130 GW by 2030.
- Approximately 56% of the electricity used in these data centers is sourced from fossil fuels, significantly contributing to carbon emissions and climate change.
- Data centers emitted about 105 million metric tons of carbon in 2023, up from 31.5 million tons in 2018, marking a 300% increase.
- Virginia, especially Northern Virginia, is a major hub with hundreds of data centers consuming more than 3 GW power, mostly from fossil fuels, posing challenges to renewable energy goals.
- Sustainable solutions include siting data centers near renewable energy sources, on-site renewable generation, and energy efficiency measures.
The article underscores the urgent need for sustainable energy strategies in data center operations to mitigate climate impact.
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Report: More Records for U.S. Energy Storage Deployment
The US energy storage market has achieved record-breaking growth in Q3 2023, with total deployments of 3,806 MW and 9,931 MWh, representing an 80% and 58% increase year-over-year. Texas and California led the grid-scale segment, with Texas tripling installations to 1.7 GW and California adding 6 GWh. The residential sector also set an all-time record with 346 MW installed, showing strong growth across multiple market segments.
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US energy storage market has record-breaking Q3