The Gazette-Mail has obtained documents indicating a monthslong courtship between West Virginia leaders and an out-of-state developer proposing a Boone County data center campus contemplated to consist of…
The Gazette-Mail has obtained documents indicating a monthslong courtship between West Virginia leaders and an out-of-state developer proposing a Boone County data center campus contemplated to consist of up to 10 gigawatts and 8,000 acres – a courtship that culminated in the state certifying the project in September 2026. Without notifying the public, Morrisey’s Department of Commerce in a letter issued High-Impact Data Center certification in response to a petition from LM Core Energy Services, a Houston-based energy infrastructure developer and data center technology company.
The approval notes the project, referred to in documents as “Project Country Roads,” was planned as a phased, large-scale artificial intelligence and high-performance computing campus encompassing roughly 3,557 acres, with about 1.4 gigawatts of anticipated full-campus electric demand. Other project documents indicate the project has been planned for the site of the former Hobet Mine, with LM Core’s certification petition listing the project address as 5151 Shaffer Road in Danville.
This is a source-linked briefing. Read the original report from Charleston Gazette-mail .