Tonight, March 10, the Fort Meade City Commission will vote on the final development agreement for a proposed 1.2 GW hyperscale data center campus on 1,300 acres near U.S. 17 and Broadway, next to Duke Energy’s Hines plant.
1.2 GW equals 1,200,000,000 watts of power. It could power about 900,000 to 1,000,000 average American homes continuously, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data and related analyses of household electricity use.
Doug Firstenberg, a principal with Stonebridge in Washington DC, described a data center during an interview with Myles Vance on “The Commissioner’s Report”:
“These are large hyperscale campuses that take up to six years to build. The campus we’re looking at in the city of Fort Meade in Polk County is 1.2 GW, a large one.”
When asked how many large campuses his company has built so far, his answer was:
“Actually, Fort Meade will be our first large campus.”
He described it as a large cloud-storage campus with server racks and heavy cooling. He promised a closed-loop cooling system (with minimal ongoing water use) and full funding for power upgrades so existing customers would face no rate hikes. This would be Stonebridge’s first gigawatt-scale project.
“We wanted to go to markets where we could get a large piece of land [and] a lot of power, and they tend to be, as in our case, in Fort Meade, located right next to an energy production plant. So we’re right next to Duke Energy’s Hines complex.”
Community opposition is overwhelming. Residents fear the massive power draw will strain the grid, especially given Duke Energy’s recent call for conservation during extreme cold in early February 2026. Other concerns include potential water shortages and pollution, constant noise from cooling fans, light pollution, backup generator emissions, and irreversible changes to their small rural town.
During the interview, Myles Vance asked Polk County Commissioner Bill Braswell why it was easy for the commission board to vote for a “substantial tax break.” The commissioner responded:
“It needs to be clear that even though we’re giving them a tax break, they are paying a tremendous amount of taxes. I believe, right out of the gate, it’s $15 million to the school board, something like that. I think the county gets a couple of million, and Fort Meade, some crazy number like $20 million or something like that. So it’s a lot dollars that the county and the city can do a lot with, and that’s important.”
Promises of jobs and tax revenue ring hollow to many when the project’s scale,enough electricity for roughly 900,000 to 1,000,000 homes, comparable to a major city, threatens local quality of life and infrastructure in a community of just 5,300 people. Critics see the benefits as uncertain or overstated, while the burdens feel immediate.
SOURCE: U.S. Energy Information Administration & Statements Made on “The Commissioner’s Report” Polk County
