Lynch says Portland is similar to Omaha in that owners pay a nominal amount of taxes on new centers. Also, whereas top markets can have power prices of up to 13 cents per kW, the price in Portland is around 4 to 5 cents per kW. “Some of the more expensive markets are three times that,” Lynch says.

Here, incentives are also strong, and a number of large data centers owned by big-name corporate users have renewed their incentives for this upcoming year, Lynch says. Apple, Google and Facebook have made this market their East Coast data center hub. The success of keeping costs low should drive further demand by other users, Lynch says.

Like Charlotte, big-name software, web and media companies have opened large data centers here thanks to low power costs and high incentives. Microsoft is reportedly spending about $1.1 billion to build four large data center facilities in Des Moines, with total floor space of more than one million sq. ft. The city itself is reportedly investing about $87 million in infrastructure for the project. Facebook already opened the first phase of its center in Altoona, and Google has plans for a $2.5 billion data center facility on 1,000 acres in Council Bluffs.

Though it’s a tiny town of only about 6,000 residents, the one strong benefit for power users in Quincy is the Wanapum Dam, which provides more than 1,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power that goes to supply data centers owned and operated by Yahoo, Dell, Microsoft and other firms. The dam allows the local utility company, the Grant County Public Utility District, to offer power at less than 3 cents per kW, making it the place with the lowest power cost of any market in the U.S., according to CBRE.