Oregon Data Centers by the Numbers: 111 Facilities Consume Nearly One-Quarter of State’s Power, According to New Report

A first-of-its-kind report details the footprint of the controversial facilities.

By Kyra Buckley, Oregon Public Broadcasting

For the first time since the explosive rise of artificial intelligence and spread of political tensions around data centers, researchers in Portland have quantified the size and scope of the industry in Oregon.

A new report released Thursday from ECOnorthwest and the University of Virginia, funded by the Portland-based nonprofit Lemelson Foundation, quantifies basic yet hard-to-find data. That includes how many data centers the state currently has (111), what’s in the pipeline (32), their employment impact (2,630 direct workers), and their energy use (about 23% of retail electricity sales statewide in 2025).

“Oregon already has a substantial data center market, with 111 operational facilities representing approximately 22.1 million square feet of gross building space,” report authors wrote in key findings exclusively shared with OPB ahead of the release. “An additional 32 facilities are identified as planned or under construction, representing approximately 6.9 million square feet of potential future development.”

But perhaps more importantly, the report highlights the gaps in available information on how data centers affect the state’s economy and the communities they operate in. Report authors found inconsistent, incomplete, or unavailable data sources for water-use and other information necessary to analyze the effect of the facilities on landscapes and communities around them.

Terry Wirkkala, project director and applied economist at ECOnorthwest, told OPB the research is meant to inform the public at a time when data centers are becoming a hot topic. In recent years, tax breaks helped fuel data center development in places like Oregon. But over the last few months, local communities have considered or implemented moratoriums on the facilities, with data centers becoming a key issue ahead of the November election.