Rutherford County

Updates, newest first

1. 2010 Meta Forest City data center · Construction began on the Forest City campus, according to Meta's location list. (Meta, Oct. 20, 2026)

Statewide

G.S. 105-164.13(55a) exempts from state sales and use tax the electricity and support equipment (power, cooling, servers, networking) for a qualifying datacenter: one where the Commerce Secretary finds at least $75 million will be invested within five years and that meets a wage standard for its area and provides health insurance to its full-time employees; the older (55) exemption covers eligible internet datacenters investing $250 million in lower-tier counties. (North Carolina General Assembly, Oct. 20, 2026; North Carolina General Assembly, Oct. 20, 2026) Senate Bill 730, the Ratepayer Protection Act, was rewritten in the House to require utilities to contract with large data centers so they cover the cost of serving them; the House passed it 69-44 on June 3, 2026, and the Senate sent it to its Rules Committee on June 8 with no further action recorded. (North Carolina General Assembly, Oct. 20, 2026; Carolina Journal, June 4, 2026) Duke Energy reached a settlement in October 2026 in its rate cases (NCUC dockets E-7 Sub 1329 and E-2 Sub 1380) making an existing tariff mandatory for data centers and other customers that use large amounts of power nearly all the time, with upfront payment for dedicated facilities such as substations; it would not apply to contracts signed on or before June 1, 2026 and needs Utilities Commission approval. (WUNC / WFAE, Oct. 7, 2026; WUNC / WFAE, Oct. 14, 2026) Local moratoriums rest on G.S. 160D-107; Orange County cited it, and a Superior Court judge ruled in September 2026 that Chatham County's moratorium could not halt a project already under way. (Orange County, N.C., April 21, 2026; NC Newsline, Sept. 22, 2026) North Carolina data centers →