Southeast Georgia is emerging as a data center hotspot as developers pursue rural sites offering abundant electricity, lower-cost land and access to coastal infrastructure.
Georgia Southern University cyber education director Christopher Kadlec told WTOC that the region’s power network, including generation from Plant Vogtle, gives it an advantage as artificial intelligence companies seek energy-intensive campuses. Georgia Power’s 2025 resource plan projected 8,200 megawatts of statewide load growth over six years, driven partly by large new customers.
OpenAI’s Project Camellia provides the clearest example. The company has contracted for 3.2 gigawatts of power in Effingham County, delivered from 2028 through 2032. OpenAI says it will pay infrastructure and electric-service costs, use closed-loop cooling and provide $80 million in community benefits.
Interest is reaching Statesboro. The City Council approved rezoning nearly 27 acres for a proposed 230,000-square-foot facility in August. Planning documents estimate a 40- to 90-megawatt requirement, but developers still need a special-use permit and have not named an operator.
Georgia offers qualifying high-technology data centers a sales and use tax exemption if they meet county-based investment and job thresholds.
The expansion is meeting resistance. Savannah imposed a 155-day moratorium on large-scale data centers to study noise, water use, neighborhood disruption and grid demands. Three Effingham County residents sued over zoning changes they allege were approved without required public hearings. Those claims have not been adjudicated.
Kadlec urged residents not to treat every project as automatically good or bad. He identified backup diesel generators, heat, noise and energy consumption as legitimate concerns, while arguing communities that reject new technology without examination could miss economic growth.
Southeast Georgia’s combination of power, land and incentives explains the rush. Whether it becomes a lasting economic engine will depend on transparency, enforceable safeguards and measurable benefits for residents.
