State page

Kentucky

Where things stand as of August 6, 2026. This page moves fast, so every section is dated. If you’re reading it much later, check the sources rather than trusting the page.

Carroll County: two projects, not one

As of August 6, 2026

Most coverage describes one data center in Carroll County. There are two, on different sites, from different developers.

The $9.6 billion Carrollton project

A Louisville-based development team, Poe Companies and PowerHouse Data Centers, announced plans for a $9.6 billion campus in Carroll County. The site is on Green’s Bottom Road near KY 389, east of I-71, between Louisville and Cincinnati.^[1] The site totals about 550 acres, roughly 342 of them owned by Carrollton Utilities. It’s bounded by I-71, the utility’s regional wastewater treatment plant, and the Kentucky River on the north edge.^[2] About 300 acres would be built out, with the rest landscaped as a sound and light buffer.^[2]

The status is pre-approval. The developers hold purchase options on the property rather than closed sales. They’ve completed initial site studies, power studies, and a draft economic impact analysis.^[1]

In late July 2026, Carrollton Mayor Robb Adams announced an agreement between the developer, the City of Carrollton, and adjoining landowners.^[2] Its terms as reported:

• A closed-loop coolant system described as requiring minimal water. No gallons figure is given.^[2]
• Construction and site traffic routed to I-71 Exit 43 at English rather than the busier Exit 44 at Carrollton.^[2]
• An annual payment to the city in lieu of taxes. The site is outside Carrollton city limits, so property tax dollars would flow to the county rather than the city. That’s why the city negotiated a payment.^[2] The amount isn’t disclosed in the source.
• The city says it “has not offered, and hopes and expects the county will not offer, any local tax reduction or incentives.”^[2]

The city bought the tract in 2019 to expand Carrollton Utilities’ regional sewage treatment plant. It’s selling the remainder to Poe Companies LLC.^[2]

The $4 billion DECA project

A second developer, DECA Companies, has proposed a roughly $4 billion data center on a different site. It’s on Sharon Road east of Ghent, across several hundred acres.^[3] The Carroll County Fiscal Court sent a letter of support to KEDFA for state tax incentives. The magistrates approved it and Deputy Judge Michael Humphrey signed it at a special meeting on June 24, 2026, with Judge-Executive David Willhoite absent. The letter is explicitly not a county endorsement of the project.^[3] DECA held an invitation-only stakeholder meeting in the Fiscal Court’s meeting room in early July 2026. Willhoite said a public forum would be scheduled later.^[3]

The state’s own EPIC report names Carroll County among counties with data center projects under consideration. The others are Hancock, Mason, Clark, Oldham, Meade, Gallatin, Madison, Laurel, Jackson, Marion, Hardin, and Simpson.^[4] That’s independent state-government confirmation that activity in the county is real, though it doesn’t speak to either project’s specifics.

The zoning wrinkle

As of August 6, 2026

This is the part that makes Carroll County different from a typical rezoning fight, and it’s also the part we can’t fully verify.

County officials have said publicly that the county cannot stop the projects. Carroll County Director of Government Services Matt Dusing told the Fiscal Court in June 2026:^[3]

“Carroll County does not have the capability to block this project. The county cannot adopt any ordinance to ban this project and neither can the planning and zoning.”

Matt Dusing, Carroll County Director of Government Services, per the Carroll News-Democrat^[3]

Judge-Executive David Willhoite is quoted in the same article on who decides. Whether DECA gets state tax incentives, or is allowed to develop in Carroll County at all, will be decided by the state and not the county, he said.^[3] A separate article from the same outlet puts it more flatly. A decision on whether the projects proceed “rests with the state since Carroll County has no zoning laws with the exception of the city of Carrollton.”^[2]

Structurally, the claim is plausible. Kentucky doesn’t require counties to zone, and as of 2025, 58 of 120 counties had adopted planning with 40 of those implementing zoning regulations.^[5] That source does not name Carroll County and can’t serve as the second confirmation. See the zoning and hearings explainer for what a process looks like when there is one.

The executive order signed August 6, 2026

As of August 6, 2026

Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order on data centers on Thursday, August 6, 2026, announced at a Team Kentucky press conference.^[6] The date and the contents are well confirmed across outlets. The order number is not.

What the order actually does

Five provisions, consistent across outlets:^[6]

1. Developers must submit an energy plan to the Energy and Environment Cabinet showing the project won’t raise electric bills for families and existing businesses.
2. The Public Service Commission is to prevent utilities from raising rates to recover data-center-related costs.
3. The Cabinet must deny permits for projects that would negatively affect air quality, water use, water quality, water supply, federal jurisdictional wetlands, or natural resources.
4. Developers must pay their fair share of state, local, and school taxes.
5. Developers must commit to transparent public engagement with local community leaders and residents.

What it is not, in the governor’s own words: Reported, not verified. “To be clear, this order doesn’t say ‘yes’ to any data center. That is up to the local community,” Beshear said, per WKYT’s coverage.^[8] We recorded that quote from WKYT’s reporting but didn’t record the article URL, so it’s marked. The substance matches the rest of the coverage: this is a ratepayer, environmental, and tax accountability order. It is not a moratorium, it doesn’t pause any project, and it doesn’t touch local land use authority.^[6]

The criticism

Enforcement is the weak point. The governor said his office will actively monitor compliance, and no penalties are stated. House Speaker David Osborne criticized the order for lacking real enforcement mechanisms.^[6] Reported, not verified. Senate President Robert Stivers separately called it political theater, per WUKY. He argued the legislature should set a lasting framework rather than governing by executive order.^[10] We didn’t record the WUKY article URL, so that one is marked. Attribute each criticism to the official who made it, not to “Republicans” generally.

Context: the 2026 legislature, controlled by Republicans, did not pass data center environmental or financial regulation. A Republican-sponsored bill to keep large-load infrastructure costs off other ratepayers died on the final day of the session.^[11]

The state tax exemption

Statute text current as of June 27, 2025

Kentucky exempts qualifying data center equipment from state sales and use tax under KRS 139.499.^[12] The dollar thresholds and the length of the exemption are in KRS 154.20-220, not in 139.499, which is a distinction most summaries get wrong.^[13] Full detail is on the taxes explainer. The short version:

• Minimum capital investment is $450,000,000 in a county of 100,000 or more, and $100,000,000 in a county over 50,000 but under 100,000.^[13]
• It’s $25,000,000 in a county of not more than 50,000, and $150,000,000 for a project organizer.^[13]
• The term is 50 years at $450,000,000 or more, 25 years below that, and 15 years for a project organizer.^[13]
• A qualifying project can’t stack other economic development incentives under KRS Chapter 154.^[13]
• Per-project tax break data reported under KRS 139.499 is expressly not confidential taxpayer information and is not subject to the statutes that otherwise prohibit disclosure.^[12]

Industrial revenue bonds, a separate local mechanism

Reported, not verified. A Kentucky Attorney General opinion released in late August 2025 deemed that data centers qualify as “industrial buildings” under KRS 103.200(1)(a). That can make them eligible for industrial revenue bonds issued by local legislative bodies. The reasoning was that data is a commercial product because it’s produced and can be sold for a profit. The opinion was requested by a Louisville attorney on behalf of a client planning a large technology and data center project.^[14]

We’ve read a news summary of that opinion, not the opinion itself, which is why it’s marked. If it holds up, it’s a local tax mechanism entirely separate from the state sales tax exemption. Local officials decide it, not Frankfort. Worth asking about by name.

The load numbers

Utility filings from March 2026, report published June 2026

The clearest Kentucky-specific numbers come from EPIC, a state commission the General Assembly created in 2024. They’re in a June 2026 report prepared for the legislature.^[4]

• LG&E and KU reported 29 potential data center projects to the Public Service Commission in March 2026. The 11 rated at 50 percent probability or better total about 3.5 gigawatts.^[4]
• PPL, the parent company, told investors in May 2026 that prospective demand in that territory could reach about 12 gigawatts.^[4]
• Kentucky utilities generated a maximum of 18.4 gigawatts in summer 2024.^[4] So the 3.5 gigawatts at better-than-even odds is around a fifth of the state’s entire current peak generation. The full prospective pipeline approaches two-thirds of it.
• East Kentucky Power Cooperative separately has 11 active projects seeking over 10 gigawatts.^[4]
• Kentucky already hosts 37 data centers across nine markets, 24 of them in Jefferson County.^[4]
• LG&E and KU projected a 29 percent increase in seasonal peak demand by 2032, almost entirely from large economic development projects.^[4]
• In October 2025 the Public Service Commission approved two new generating units, Mill Creek 6 and Brown 12, at $2.798 billion. The approval was conditioned on the utility’s commitment not to proceed if the data center load doesn’t materialize.^[4]

The regulator has been openly skeptical of the pipeline. EPIC notes the Public Service Commission found it troubling that the utility had not provided evidence supporting the probability estimates it assigned to individual projects.^[4] More on what this means on the power explainer.

One more piece of Kentucky context. The state’s first hyperscale facility is in southwest Louisville, announced January 2025 by PowerHouse Data Centers and Poe Companies. That’s the same pairing as the Carrollton project. LG&E secured 335 megawatts initially, with near-term expansion to 402 megawatts. The first phase of 130 megawatts is targeted for late 2026, against a lifetime investment of roughly $11 billion.^[4]

Other Kentucky communities

As of June 8, 2026

Local governments across Kentucky have gone different directions, and the votes have not been one-sided.^[11]

• Daviess County adopted a 12-month moratorium, with the Fiscal Court voting May 28, 2026. Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen: “I think we can set rules in place to protect our citizens and to protect our community, but I don’t think you can outright ban a business.”^[11]
• Allen County adopted a 24-month moratorium under Judge-Executive Dennis Harper, prompted by a hyperscale proposal in Simpson County.^[11]
• Cave City, population around 2,400 near Mammoth Cave, adopted a one-year moratorium.^[11]
• Ashland and Boyd County adopted a six-month moratorium on data center applications. Residents had packed a convention center over officials signing nondisclosure agreements with a developer.^[11]
• Bowling Green’s council voted a moratorium down.^[11]
• Louisville’s planning and zoning committee tabled a six-month moratorium on June 2, 2026. The Planning Commission had approved a 1.6-million-square-foot West Louisville data center in March 2026.^[11]
• Murray is advancing zoning regulations with no proposal on the table. Lexington is considering a zoning ordinance after a developer bought a $29 million site.^[11]

For balance, the industry position. Dan Diorio is vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group. He says local moratoriums “send a signal that the area is closed for business.”^[11]

What we still owe this page

• Confirm the executive order number against the state’s own record once governor.ky.gov and the Secretary of State registry are reachable.^[9]
• Find a second, independent outlet on Carroll County’s zoning status, or get it from the county directly.
• Verify Carroll County’s current five-year American Community Survey population, which determines the tax exemption tier.
• Record direct article URLs for the July 23, 2026 DECA story, the WKYT executive order coverage, and the WUKY criticism.
• Load the story directly on a reported August 4, 2026 call by the Louisville mayor for a moratorium, which we have not confirmed. Follow up on the Indianapolis full council vote reported for August 10, 2026, which our sources covered only at committee stage.

All of that is tracked on the sources page.