Data Center Record.
Methodology

How the Record is built.

A reference is only useful if the method behind it is visible. This page documents where the information comes from, which sources outrank which, how the data is licensed, and what happens when something is wrong.

Standards

Rules the Record follows

  • Never estimate. A value that is not in the public record is recorded as not disclosed. No field ever holds a guessed number.
  • Every fact has a source. Every status change carries a source link and a source tier. A record without a source does not publish; the site fails to build rather than publishing an unsourced claim.
  • Status history is append only. Earlier states of a project are never overwritten or deleted. What a project was recorded as in March remains visible after it changes in June.
  • Every record shows when it was last verified. That date is on the page. The Record is never described as updated daily, because that would be a claim about every record rather than about the ones actually checked.
  • Slugs never change. A record's address is permanent so citations do not rot. Later names for the same project are added as aliases on the same record.
  • Neutral language in the dataset. No judging adjectives in any recorded field. Characterizations are attributed to whoever made them. Opinion lives in clearly labeled analysis, outside the dataset.
  • Aggregates reconcile. Every total on a state page is computed from the records beneath it at build time. No figure is typed by hand.
Sourcing

Source tiers

Every source cited on the Record is assigned a tier, and the tier is shown next to the citation. Tier is about proximity to the underlying document, not about the quality of the outlet.

Tier 1

Query feeds

Find the trail. Alert and news search feeds tracking project names, codenames, counties with activity, and terms such as moratorium, rezoning, and lawsuit. These surface leads. They are never the source recorded on a status change when a primary source exists for the same event.

Tier 2

Primary sources

What gets cited. State utility commission dockets, county commission and planning agendas and minutes, legislative bill records, permit filings, parcel records, and utility interconnection notices. These outrank everything else and are the sources recorded wherever they exist.

Tier 3

Trade press

Context and leads. Industry publications covering the sector. Useful for finding events and for context, cited as reporting rather than as the record of an event.

Tier 4

Local outlets

The reporters who own the beat. State and county newspapers, public broadcasters, and local news sites. Often first to a hearing or a filing, and cited as reporting.

Precedence: a status change is not recorded on a tier 1 or tier 3 source alone when a tier 2 source exists for the same event. The tier 2 source is the one recorded.
Location

How locations are recorded

Coordinates come from parcel records, permit filings, and site plans. Every record carries how precisely it is located: parcel, address, city centroid, or county centroid.

Centroids are approximations used when a more precise location is not in the public record. They render as a hollow marker on the map and are labeled as approximate on the record. A centroid is never presented as a located site, for the same reason no value is ever estimated.

License

Using the data

The Data Center Record dataset is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Reporters, researchers, analysts, and answer engines are welcome to use it, including commercially. Being cited is the point.

Attribution required with any reuse:

Data: Data Center Record, datacenterrecord.org, CC BY 4.0.

Where possible, link to the specific record page rather than the site. That is what turns a reuse into a citation, and it is asked for rather than merely permitted.

Analysis articles and all other prose on this site remain under standard copyright. Only the structured dataset is CC BY 4.0.

Corrections

When the Record is wrong

Errors are corrected openly. A correction is added to the record it affects, with the date and a note describing what changed, and it is listed on the corrections log. The earlier value is not quietly replaced.

Because records are kept in version control, every change to the dataset carries a timestamp and a visible difference. The correction history is not something the Record maintains voluntarily; it is a property of how the data is stored.

To report an error, write to contact@datacenterrecord.org with the record and the source that shows the correct information.