Data Center Site Selection in North Carolina

North Carolina’s grid is built on gas and nuclear. In 2023 natural gas produced 41% of the state’s net generation and nuclear 33%, making North Carolina the fifth-largest nuclear power producer in the country.⁵ Coal supplied 11% and solar 10%, and the state ranked fourth in solar generating capacity with nearly 6,600 MW.⁵

Most of the state is served by Duke Energy’s two utilities, Duke Energy Carolinas in the west and Duke Energy Progress in the east, with electric cooperatives, municipal systems and Dominion Energy in parts of the northeast covering the rest. North Carolina is not in an organized wholesale market, so service is negotiated with a vertically integrated utility and approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Our Southeast regional guide explains how that model differs from PJM, and our South Carolina guide covers the other half of Duke’s Carolinas system.

Demand forecasts have risen quickly. Duke raised its 2035 forecast of large-customer demand in the Carolinas to 8 GW, 2 GW more than a year earlier, with most of the growth expected from data centers.¹

Duke serves large data center loads through a staged process. A customer starts with an initial engagement and a transmission study, and may then negotiate a Letter Agreement and an Energy Supply Agreement (ESA).⁹ Letter Agreements can require advance refundable capital payments, minimum billing provisions, termination fees and interruptible service obligations.⁹

The volume moving through that process is large. Duke said it signed another 2.7 GW of data center agreements in the first quarter of 2026, bringing executed ESAs to about 7.6 GW, and described a late-stage pipeline of 15.4 GW.⁷ It said its data center ESAs are subject to minimum billing requirements, with load ramping from late 2027 and accelerating in 2028.⁷ Duke also said data centers are expected to make up 75% of economic development load growth in the Carolinas by 2030.⁷

For a site buyer, the practical point is that a parcel near Duke transmission is not the same as a parcel with capacity. Ask where a project would sit in Duke’s study sequence and what payments the Letter Agreement would require. Our guides to the large-load interconnection process and load ramp schedules cover the general mechanics.

In testimony filed with the Utilities Commission in late June 2026, Duke proposed a large-load tariff for data centers and other customers above 50 MW. They would pay for at least 75% of their contracted capacity for 10 to 15 years, whatever they actually draw, under a standard tariff that replaces the confidential agreements Duke negotiates today.¹ Consumer and clean energy advocates had already asked regulators to create separate rates for data centers,¹⁰ and many called Duke’s shift welcome but insufficient.¹¹

Cost allocation is the other open issue. The commission’s Public Staff asked for roughly $200 million of the $247 million in grid upgrades Duke had requested to be assigned directly to large-load customers.¹¹ In September 2026 Attorney General Jeff Jackson asked the commission to create a new Duke rate class for data centers, make Duke’s template data center contract public and require reports on agreements that depart from it.⁶ A ruling on the tariff and Duke’s pending rate cases was expected in the fall of 2026.⁶

The 2025 session changed the energy backdrop. Senate Bill 266 eliminated the interim requirement for Duke to cut carbon emissions 70% by 2030. Governor Josh Stein vetoed it on July 2, 2025,¹² and the General Assembly overrode the veto on July 29, 2025.¹³ The change matters for data center siting because it shapes the generation Duke plans to build for new load, which now goes through the commission without that 2030 interim target.

The 2026 session turned to data centers directly. The House amended and passed Senate Bill 730, renamed the Ratepayer Protection Act, by a 69–44 vote on June 3, 2026.³ As passed by the House, the bill would:

• Require data centers using more than 100 MW in a month to hold power contracts of at least 15 years that cover all costs of serving them.³
• Require large data centers to analyze noise within 500 feet of the property line and use closed-loop cooling to limit water use.⁸
• Bar local governments from offering data centers economic development incentives such as property tax breaks.⁸
• Prohibit Duke from retiring coal or gas plants until it obtains a permit for a nuclear plant of at least 1,000 MW.⁸

Industry groups raised alarm about the bill,⁸ and the amended version went back to the Senate, where it was referred to the Rules Committee.³ We found no report of Senate concurrence or enactment as of October 2026. Check the bill’s status before relying on any of these terms, and see our overview of state data center legislation for how similar bills have fared elsewhere.

North Carolina’s hyperscale history sits in the western Piedmont and foothills. Apple’s campus in Maiden, Catawba County, opened in 2009, covers about one million square feet and represents about $4 billion of investment; Apple announced a $175 million expansion adding a 237,600-square-foot building on land it already owned.¹⁴ The campus is supplied with renewable energy through biogas fuel cells, two 20 MW solar arrays and direct clean energy purchases.¹⁴ Google first announced its Lenoir campus in 2007 and later committed $1 billion over two years to expand data center infrastructure in the state, centered on Lenoir.¹⁵

The Research Triangle is a different story. Its fiber, workforce and proximity to Raleigh and Durham attract proposals, but local resistance grew in 2026. Apex weighed a pause on data centers in March as opposition spread across the state.⁴ In late August, Cary’s town council approved an 18-month pause on data center applications while staff study the issue and draft an ordinance, and in September Raleigh’s council directed the city attorney to draft a moratorium for a possible October vote.¹⁶ Outside the Triangle, Tarboro’s town council denied an application for a 50-acre data center.⁴

The pattern for a site buyer is clear: in fast-growing Triangle towns, entitlement risk can matter as much as power. Screen for pending moratoriums and study periods before spending on engineering. Our guides to moratoriums and local restrictions and community engagement cover how to approach it.

North Carolina’s main state incentive is a sales tax exemption for qualifying datacenters, in effect since January 1, 2016.² It covers electricity used at the datacenter and datacenter support equipment located and used there.²

The sales tax exemption is separate from local property tax incentives, and the House version of SB 730 would bar local governments from offering those incentives to data centers.⁸ Confirm both with a tax advisor and the county before they go into a pro forma. Our guide to sales tax exemptions by state compares North Carolina’s terms with its neighbors’.

1. 01Identify the utility: Duke Energy Carolinas, Duke Energy Progress, a cooperative, a municipal system or Dominion. Duke’s large-load process applies only in its territory.⁹
2. 02Ask Duke where a new request would sit in its study sequence, given a late-stage pipeline of about 15 GW.⁷
3. 03Price the minimum payment terms under both Duke’s proposed tariff and the House version of SB 730.¹³
4. 04Check the county wage tier and the $75 million investment test for the sales tax exemption.²
5. 05Plan for closed-loop cooling and a noise study if SB 730 becomes law.⁸
6. 06Search town and county agendas for moratoriums or study periods, especially in Wake County and the rest of the Triangle.¹⁶

These steps do not replace written answers from Duke, the county and a tax advisor, but they show quickly whether a parcel deserves that effort. Our due diligence checklist covers the rest, and you can get a site reviewed if you want an outside screen of a North Carolina parcel.