Market Trend · 28 August 2026
Provo, East Vincent, Naperville, San Marcos, Rochelle. Every recent data-center refusal we can point to was handed down by a city council or a township — inside counties that look unremarkable from a county-level screen.
County-level records only. A township or city moratorium inside an otherwise permissive county does not shade the state — Michigan alone has dozens — so read this as a floor, not a census.
County ordinance and resolution records, read 27 August 2026. Territories are outside the projection.
| State | Counties restricting |
|---|---|
| Georgia | 10 |
| North Carolina | 7 |
| Michigan | 6 |
| Maryland | 3 |
| California | 3 |
| Colorado | 2 |
| Iowa | 2 |
| Wisconsin | 2 |
| Idaho | 1 |
| Indiana | 1 |
| Kentucky | 1 |
| Virginia | 1 |
Field Note · 28 August 2026
In three days in August, boards in Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Wisconsin adopted or extended data-center moratoria covering 674,579 residents.
Market Trend · 21 August 2026
In eighteen months the instrument went from a township's 180-day pause to a governor freezing an interconnection queue and a bill in both chambers of Congress. Each rung up the ladder is harder to route around than the one below it.
Market Trend · 21 August 2026
Nine Massachusetts towns voted to block solar or battery storage. The Attorney General struck down the bylaws, one at a time, under a statute most developers have never read.
Market Trend · 20 August 2026
Governor Abbott froze roughly 250–300 grid-connection requests representing about 200 GW — more than twice ERCOT's record peak. For the first time the binding constraint on a data center isn't a county board. It's the queue.
Market Trend · 19 August 2026
Ask where data centers get blocked in America and most people still say Northern Virginia. Georgia, Michigan and the Carolinas now hold the overwhelming majority of restricted counties. Virginia holds one.
Market Trend · 18 August 2026
Of 507 counties SitePath tracks for battery storage, five are in a restrictive posture. Meanwhile 114 have written a standalone BESS ordinance and 223 reference NFPA 855.
Weekly Analysis · 21 July 2026
When a Virginia county wanted to keep utility-scale solar out, the state legislature took the decision away from it.
Assigned from the source document; an objection naming two technologies is counted under the one it leads with.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Data centers | 1,410 on record |
| Utility-scale solar | 781 on record |
| Wind | 517 on record |
| Battery storage | 323 on record |
| General energy | 159 on record |
| Transmission | 64 on record |
County ordinances and board resolutions. Municipal and township action sits below this line and is not counted here.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Data centers | 39 counties |
| Utility-scale solar | 12 counties |
| Battery storage | 5 counties |
Eleven denials in ten thousand records is not a measure of how often projects get stopped. Most are stopped earlier — by a moratorium that means no application is ever filed, or by a developer who walks away before a vote and leaves no document behind.
Latest publicly stated status for each facility, read 27 August 2026. A project can sit in "announced" for years without either a refusal or a shovel.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Operating | 8,632 |
| Announced | 999 |
| Approved, not built | 184 |
| Under construction | 146 |
| Cancelled | 72 |
| Suspended | 42 |
| Withdrawn | 29 |
| Denied | 11 |
What The Scoop is. A weekly read on where energy and data-center projects are getting waved through, slowed down, or stopped cold — written from the ordinances, board votes, dockets and filings themselves. Every figure traces to a primary document. If a value cannot be verified against one, it does not run.
Think we got something wrong? Say so — hello@sitepathintel.com. We print corrections; we do not quietly edit. Tips about a hearing, a vote or a filing are always welcome, and we will not name you unless you ask us to.