Remington Technology Park data center, Remington, Virginia

The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors has voted to let PointOne power its Remington Technology Park, a six-building, 1.8-million-square-foot data center campus in Remington, Virginia, with a private yard of natural gas fuel cells. The campus was first approved in 2018 but has not been built, and construction has been held up by trouble getting power to the property.

PointOne, a Canadian company, applied in 2018 to build up to 1.8 million square feet in six buildings, and its website describes the Remington site as 300 megawatts and shovel-ready on 234 acres. A county staff presentation in July 2026 said the project's total energy demand could reach 600 megawatts, and noted the potential for a second 300-megawatt substation.

Staff said the fuel cells were needed because of "Dominion Energy changes to delivery phases of electric power and energization schedule," and that without them construction would likely be delayed until at least 2030. How much power the fuel cells would generate, and for how long they would run, is still unknown.

The Planning Commission had recommended denial 3-2 of an earlier version that used natural gas turbines. PointOne chief executive Colin Clish said the new proposal was "very different from the application" the commission saw. Supervisors Ike Broaddus, Daron Culbertson and chairman Kevin Carter voted for the rezoning, Regan Washer voted against, and Richard Gerhardt was absent.

"Our grid is taxed, literally because of data centers," Washer said, adding that if a project needs "the equivalent power of several 100,000 houses to operate, maybe you're just not supposed to be there in the first place." "If we say no tonight, we're going to get the same data center," Broaddus said. "We're going to get it in four or five years delayed." He put the cost of that delay at about $100 million in lost tax revenue.

Three residents spoke against it at the hearing, and Sumerduck resident Leah Cooper said the county lacks the "legal structure" to regulate a private power plant of that size. "When will it be enough?" she asked. "How many neighborhoods will be encroached on?"

Remington Technology Park is the one data center already approved in the Remington area, which has drawn a string of other proposals. Those others have now fallen away. Just south of Lucky Hill Road, Gigaland proposed seven two-story buildings on 202 acres, which the Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend denying in June 2025.

Gigaland withdrew its application for the second time on August 17, 2026, Convergent VA pulled its Convergent Technology Park in late August to build houses instead, and the Remington Innovation Campus was withdrawn on September 17.

The county is now moving to shut the door on new projects like these. On September 17, 2026, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended a zoning change that would remove data centers as a permitted use in business park zones and limit new ones to land zoned for planned commercial industrial development, which today is only the Vint Hill area.

Staff concluded there are "no appropriate areas for data center development" elsewhere in the county, citing the strain on the electrical grid, noise and air pollution. The change would also require every future data center to get a special exception from the Board of Supervisors.

The recommendation goes next to the Board of Supervisors. It applies to future applications, and Remington Technology Park already holds its approvals.