“It’s a scary proposition.”Virginia is considered the data center capital of the world with 568 such facilities, according to datacentermap.com. The number of generators correlated with data center permits across the state is about 10,000, Bennet said, with about 2,000 being the non-emergency generators, since one data center will have several of them. At full tilt, data center’s generators would release far more pollutants, Pitt’s research shows. “We are working with the DOE, data centers and the transmission owners (like local utilities) to establish a process,” PJM spokesperson Jeff Shields said Wednesday in an email. The freshman delegate defeated a Republican incumbent in November by prioritizing a desire to strengthen oversight of data centers.