Data centers in Union County, South Carolina: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

In April 2026, Ankit Joshi of Volt Edge Energy, a Texas-based company, presented "Project Alpaca" to the county council: a 49-megawatt data center campus in the Midway Green Industrial Park, a $410 million investment with more than 500 construction jobs and more than 50 permanent jobs. The company said it would use a closed-loop cooling system with "a specialized coolant mixture" sourced from Texas rather than the local water system. Lockhart Power, which already had capacity at the park from businesses that had left, said its customers would see no rate increase. Its president, Bryan Stone, said Volt Edge had no second phase planned.

Residents were not persuaded. Braeden Jones started a petition that gathered hundreds of signatures. "Everybody's concerned about our water, about the noise pollution," he said, and he noted that Volt Edge had not said whether the center would be used for AI or for storage. Dalton Sinclair, who said he was on the fence, asked whether the county would lower property taxes to offset any rise in utility bills: "I can't go shop there, I'm not getting a free subscription upgrade to ChatGPT, the taxpayer gains nothing from this."

On April 28, 2026, the council voted to table the first reading of the fee-in-lieu-of-tax ordinance and canceled a May 12 public hearing. "At this time there will be no further consideration by Council concerning this project," it said, adding that if the project returns, a public information forum will be held before any tax agreement moves forward.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.