A recent tour of a new hyper scale power solution manufacturing facility in Henrico County is putting the spotlight on just how much power data centers will demand in the near future.
And while both of Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates know the Commonwealth’s economic future is likely linked to data center demand, they have different ideas on how to power it.
At the opening for a new expansion of Hyper Solutions in Henrico County Governor Glenn Youngkin is getting a tour from company co-founder Dennis Strieter.
“This is the world's first and most compact and dense power distribution unit," he said, pointing to a large black box with a screen on one side. "This delivers 1.3 million watts, or about 2 thousand homes worth of power to computer servers.”
Hyper Solutions builds these power distribution units, or PDUs, for hyper scale data centers, massive facilities that use one gigawatt of power… so how many PDUs is that?
“10 thousand for one 1 gigawatt campus. (That’s 2 million homes?) it’s a lot of homes,” Strieter said.
Virginia currently has about 3.6 million homes.
So, what are the candidates’ solutions to that incredible new demand that is likely to come online during the next governor’s term? For that we go to last week’s debate.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger said the Trump administration cutting funding for green energy was doing more harm than good, but she pointed to a recent State Corporation Commission case which could create a new rate payer class specifically for data centers
“It may require action within the general assembly to ensure that large utility users like data centers are paying their fair share for the energy they consume,” Spanberger said Thursday.
Republican Winsome Earle-Sears said we need an all of the above approach, but not before taking a shot at renewables.
“My opponent's only plan is solar and wind," Earle-Sears said. "Well, what happens when the sun goes down?”
Trump’s recent efforts to cut solar have drawn the ire of Utah’s Republican governor, but Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin suggested Earle-Sears was better equipped to handle the problem.
“Wind and solar will not meet all our demands," Youngkin said. "We need all of the above and that will be the job of the next governor.”
Youngkin also urged change in the wake of the SCC decision and hoped it would lead to new pay structure for power-hungry data centers.
“The data center developers are willing to support much more of the infrastructure build through their customized rate structure so it doesn’t fall on the back of rate players,” he said.
Both Earle-Sears and Youngkin also hit Spanberger for her support for the Virginia Clean Economy act, though Democrats in legislative leadership have already signaled they would likely amend the law during the 2026 session.
Youngkin made the comments after cutting the ribbon on a new Henrico expansion for the Hyper Solutions which will add to a nationwide network of individualized power management manufacturing for data centers as they pop up in Virginia and beyond. Strieter said this decentralized manufacturing method would not only add to US manufacturing but also improve the supply chain.
“Sometimes there’s a a snow storm in Iowa that would shut a factory down, our customers can’t handle that delay,” he said. “We’ve got another facility in Kansas building the exact same thing.”
Youngkin said 70% of the internet flows through Virginia and Hyper would help keep that title for the Commonwealth.
“What you do here at Hyper is critically, critically important in order to fuel not just an economic gain, but a national security imperative,” the governor said.
The new expansion means Hyper brings the number of Virginia jobs created by the company to 40.
Workers will build the devices that transfer massive amounts of power into the commonwealth’s data center system worth billions in tax revenue.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
