Thanks, Cardinal readers, for clicking through to the latest Tech Briefs. This weekly batch of digital and life sciences news items goes live every Wednesday in Cardinal News.
Got tips and/or questions? Reach out to me via tad@cardinalnews.org.
A bill from the House of Representatives called the Expanding Appalachia’s Broadband Access Act is the latest move to add more low earth orbit satellite connections in rural areas.
The bill, which passed the House on March 24, would require a Government Accountability Office study on the Appalachian Regional Commission’s capability “to incorporate low-orbit satellites in broadband projects.”
Rep. David Taylor, R-Ohio, introduced the bill, which calls for the federal comptroller to study issues including economic development growth where businesses already use satellite broadband, and to analyze whether it would be cost-effective to further implement satellite broadband for economic growth.
The report would be due within a year after the bill passes. It moved to the Senate, where it sits in the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has become dominant in the low earth orbit satellite market, while Amazon LEO is ascending, as well.
In November, Virginia received federal approval for its plan to connect about 85,000 homes, businesses and community buildings to high-speed internet service under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, or BEAD. That plan includes 3,137 locations for Starlink in Southwest and Southside Virginia. Amazon was approved to connect 1,132 locations in the region.
The state broadband office has earmarked $545 million in BEAD awards for 23 internet service providers to fill the gap, the office wrote in a recent newsletter.
The Appalachian Regional Commission is a federal and state economic development partnership that serves parts of 12 states and all of West Virginia. Highland, Rockbridge, Bath, Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig, Montgomery, Floyd, Henry and Patrick counties, and all Virginia counties west of them, are part of the ARC map.
A portion of ARC’s mission centers on funding broadband construction and other projects in communities with unreliable internet service, according to the commission’s website.
Pilot survey will track data center energy use
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is asking data center operators, including some in Virginia, to detail their energy use.
In a news release last week, the agency said that it is launching three pilot field studies, all voluntary, via web-based surveys in Texas and Washington, and in-person interviews in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
The Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said it had identified 196 companies operating data centers in those places. Northern Virginia, which holds the unofficial title “Data Center Capital of the World,” is home to 25% of all North America’s reported operational capacity and 13% of the planet’s capacity, according to a 2024 report from the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
JLARC at the time counted about 150 data center sites in Virginia. Southwest and Southside Virginia have seen more developments and proposals over the past couple of years.
Each company in the EIA survey will be asked to report on energy use from at least one data center. The questionnaire will cover energy sources, electricity consumption, site characteristics, server metrics and cooling systems, according to the news release.
