A Data Center the Size of a Small City Meets West Virginia's Dark Skies
Between the small towns of Davis and Thomas in Tucker County, West Virginia, a Virginia-based company called Fundamental Data wants to build Ridgeline, a sprawling data and energy complex. The first phase, the company says, is a roughly 785-megawatt generating plant designed to support artificial intelligence, cloud computing and enterprise systems. The campus would generate its own power on site, running mainly on natural gas with diesel as backup, rather than drawing from the regional grid.
The project would start on about 291 acres of reclaimed coal-mining land. But its final footprint is vague: the company's responsible official has said only that full buildout would cover thousands of acres, and local news reports put the possible maximum at 10,000 acres, about 15 square miles, reaching into neighboring Grant County. The company still describes the project as conceptual.
In 2025 West Virginia passed a microgrid law designed to lure data centers that generate their own electricity. The Republican supermajority in both chambers exempted certified microgrid districts and high-impact data centers from county and municipal zoning and from local rules on matters including noise, lighting, viewsheds and land use. Critics, including some Tucker County officials, say the law stripped local governments of the power to block or regulate projects like Ridgeline.
The state Department of Environmental Protection approved the project's air-quality permit. Opponents, including a grassroots coalition called Tucker United, say regulators did so without a full assessment of the health effects on the surrounding valley. Davis Mayor Alan Tomson says residents first learned of the project in March 2025 from an obscure newspaper notice about the permit application. Environmental groups challenged the turbine permit, but on August 26 the state Intermediate Court of Appeals dismissed the challenges on jurisdictional grounds without ruling on whether the emissions review was adequate. Further appeals are still moving through the state's air quality board.
The stakes for the landscape are high. The nearly million-acre Monongahela National Forest links Canaan Valley's ski slopes with the dark skies of Blackwater Falls and Spruce Knob, and Davis and Thomas serve as gateway towns. The area is one of the few remaining pockets of deep darkness east of the Mississippi, drawing amateur astronomers from across the region, and Blackwater Falls State Park is pursuing an official dark-sky certification. Residents fear glow, haze and noise will erode a tourism economy built on skiing, hiking and stargazing. The company says it will use carefully designed lighting to limit sky glow, while adding that safety and security take precedence.
Fundamental Data says construction would bring thousands of temporary jobs and roughly 500 permanent positions in IT, electrical and cooling systems, engineering and security, plus billions in private investment. Opponents call the project a new extractive industry: outside firms take the resources and leave locals with the mess. Tucker United, formed in April 2025, is demanding transparent decisions and a return of local control. Whether the ridgeline above Davis ends up glowing with data halls or stays dark enough for the Milky Way now depends on the permit fights ahead. Would you welcome a project like this near your hometown? If your community had to choose between new jobs and its night skies, which would you pick and why?