Data centers account for about 80% of Duke Energy’s projected energy demand, according to a report from Gov. Josh Stein’s North Carolina Energy Policy Task Force.
The report found that data centers have “uniquely high energy needs” compared to traditional users like manufacturing, chemicals, life sciences, food and beverage, and aerospace industries.
Created by Stein in August 2025, the bipartisan task force released its interim report on Sunday. The group tackled recommendations for affordable and clean energy amid quickly increasing demand in North Carolina.
More proposed data centers would lead to higher demand for energy. Typically, Duke Energy spreads the costs of additional services across its customer base.
But people say that’s unfair when it comes to data centers.
“If you’ve got a situation where it’s some specific, identifiable customers who are driving those new costs, we need to have policies and strategies and rate structures in place to make sure it’s those big customers that are paying their fair share, and not unnecessarily putting other customers at risk for covering that,” said David Neal, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Illinois lawmakers faced with a similar problem considered measures requiring data centers to supply their own renewable energy, or “bring your own new clean energy.”
Meech Carter, clean energy campaigns director at the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, said data centers need to prioritize using clean and renewable energy when powering their operations.
“As a state, we are supposed to have carbon neutrality in our power sector by 2050 and if a data center decides to build a gas plant, that’s going to infringe on our clean energy goals,” Carter said.
The task force looked at how other states have handled a growing number of data centers.
Many states offer tax incentives for data centers. Alabama, Iowa, Montana, Nevada and Oklahoma are providing sales and use tax exemptions on materials, electricity, and equipment, as well as property tax relief.
In some states, the tax incentives are conditional.
Delaware, Maryland, Missouri and Louisiana require data centers to create between five and 50 jobs. In Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Mississippi, and Missouri, data center jobs must pay at or above the local average wage.
“States across the country are putting in place rules to ensure that data centers pay their fair share and can bring their own clean energy with them, rather than passing the bill to NC households and increasing pollution,” Environmental Defense Fund North Carolina policy director Will Scott said in a statement. “North Carolina should expect — and deserve — better than business as usual, and this report gives legislators and regulators a blueprint for action.”
At the moment, North Carolina provides sales tax exemptions for data center electricity use and equipment.
The General Assembly’s fiscal research division estimated in 2015 an annual fiscal impact of $4 million regarding the applicability of the exemptions.
“In the ensuing years, North Carolina has seen substantial manufacturing, industrial, and data center investments in amounts that could not have been forecasted 10 years ago due to advances in technology and shifting economic forces,” the report says.
As a result, the task force found that the state government “does not currently have a reliable estimate” of the dollar value of the sales tax exemptions for data center electricity use and equipment.
The panel expects to release a report next month looking at power sector modeling and different ways North Carolina could meet its growing energy demand.
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