NC HB 1063 / SB 730 / 40 MW + 25% on-site clean / July 1 effective

Plain-English framing: where Wisconsin's tariff change was a regulator (PSC) tightening one utility's rate plan, North Carolina is a state legislature pre-emptively writing the rules for the whole state across every utility — Duke, Dominion-NC, ElectriCities. It is structurally bigger. Three provisions to call out separately because they each create a different kind of project risk. (1) 40 MW threshold is much lower than Wisconsin's 100 MW. NC chose 40 MW because that catches essentially every modern campus, including mid-tier colo. The threshold + a water trigger (1 billion liters/year — roughly the threshold a single mid-size water-cooled facility hits) means almost no real data center escapes it. (2) The 25% on-site clean self-generation mandate is the genuinely novel piece. No other state has a comparable rule. For a 200 MW campus that is 50 MW of solar / wind / battery / geothermal / nuclear-SMR equivalent on-parcel. That is a 50-100 acre solar field or an equivalent BTM combination, and it materially changes the parcel-selection problem (you now need adjacent land big enough for the renewable AND the data hall). (3) The incentives prohibition removes one of the standard tools states use to compete for hyperscale wins (property-tax abatements, sales-tax holidays on equipment). For developers comparing NC vs SC vs VA vs GA, NC just stopped offering financial sweeteners. Sources: WRAL 'Proposed NC bill targets data center costs, power demand'; WRAL NC Capitol 'Getting squeezed: NC lawmakers look to stop data centers from raising energy, water costs'; Data Center Dynamics 'Bill proposed in North Carolina seeks to mandate large load data centers to cover cost of energy and water infrastructure'; WUNC 'NC bill proposes data center regulations, would keep local governments from offering incentives' (May 21); Data Center Knowledge 'North Carolina Targets Hyperscale Costs with Proposed AI Infrastructure Bill'; NC Newsline 'NC bills target data center boom, seeking tax changes, consumer protections' (May 8); Smoky Mountain News 'Data center bill targets rates, water, incentives'.

Primary source · WRAL / WUNC / Data Center Knowledge / Data Center Dynamics ↗