New York-based Active Infrastructure is in the process of purchasing a total of 326 acres in Leesburg along Evergreen Mills Road, south of Leesburg proper in order to build a massive data campus. 

By Lynn Norusis
January 2025

The proposed campus would be powered in part by what it’s calling a “first of its kind” on-site clean energy generation and battery storage system, according to documents received by The Washington Business Journal. 

Active Infrastructures is preparing the proposal even though Loudoun County lawmakers have come out mainly against data center development in neighborhood-adjacent lots.

The plans do not solidify the size of the data centers, but numbers sent to WBJ suggest square footage could be anywhere from 3.5 million square feet to 4.7 million square feet. 

And what makes this potential proposal a first of its kind? Active Infrastructures is proposing environmentally conscious features such as: “natural gas-powered hydrogen fuel cells that generate electricity without combustion, creating a low- or zero-emissions microgrid,” and “a battery system that would stabilize the electrical grid and enhance resiliency, ensuring a steady stream of power capacity back into and available to the larger grid.”

According to WBJ, the county’s 2019 comprehensive plan assigns the proposed site as a Transition Large Lot Neighborhood “place type,” which envisions predominantly low-density housing and certain agriculture and commercial uses as “complementary,” but not data centers, so there will be a lot of work to get this proposal through. 

Timelines for this project are unknown since the proposal has not been officially put forward.

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