Voters who oppose data centers in their town are more willing to consider the project if developers offer household upgrades like solar panels, battery storage, and heat pumps, according to a new poll.

GoodPower’s Data Center Survey Experiment, released Oct. 19, polled more than 2,600 voters nationwide, including in data center-heavy states like Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. 

Researchers found that offering a community benefits agreement that includes efficient electric home energy upgrades boosted bipartisan voter opinion of the projects by as much as 14 points. That’s the same level of increase that voters gave to a scenario in which data center projects were required to give a rate guarantee, to cover the cost of any grid upgrades to ensure electricity rates don’t rise as a result of their project.

The approval bounce happened specifically among the 78 percent of voters surveyed who distrust data center companies, researchers found.

What’s striking about the GoodPower survey is it’s at least the third round of independent polling in the last several months that highlighted the same effect — following similar polls from Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and Deploy Action.

The Yale Climate Change in the American Mind poll — released in June — found that 74 percent of voters support requiring new data centers to offset their electricity use by installing rooftop solar on, and weatherizing, local homes. That support crosses party lines. The Deploy Action poll — released in September — found that 76 percent of Virginia voters support requiring data center developers to fund improvements that lower nearby residents’ electricity bills by 20 percent or more, including investments such as rooftop solar and home batteries. 

The takeaway is clear: if data centers want to come to a community, and the community is willing to consider their proposal, that data center must proceed responsibly and must put consumer protections first. Look at the latest work from Climate Mayors — a bipartisan network of 350+ U.S. mayors leading on climate issues. As the group explains in their newly released Model Local Law: A Framework for Responsible Data Center Development, local communities facing data center growth need help putting policies in place to protect households from rising electricity costs, a buildout of dirty energy, and a host of other concerns like water use and noise that can come from these large energy customers. 

In response to requests from their members, the group worked with the Model Climate Laws Initiative, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, and Climate XChange to put together sample language for mayors and their teams “to shape if, how, and where data centers are built.”

Notably, their model legislation includes recommendations for requiring the data centers match 100 percent of their energy use with clean power — including from distributed energy from households in the form of virtual power plants. They also include community benefit requirements, which could support efficient electric home upgrades, as part of the condition for permitting new projects.

Households want — and need — these money-saving energy upgrades, and it’s key to have policies in place to ensure households won’t be stuck with the bill, clean power will be the primary source for growing demand, and the investment pathway for data centers will be there to support upgrades for homes and the grid.

According to Bloomberg News, well-placed policies are already helping Americans move forward with upgrades like these. American households installed a record-breaking 673 megawatts of home battery storage in the first three months of 2026 alone. The states that led the way include California, Hawaii, Texas and Arizona, which offered incentives for those battery upgrades in the face of high energy prices. Meanwhile, residential energy prices continue to rise nationwide, up 5 percent since last year, according to the most recent data from the Energy Information Administration.

Rewiring America's Homegrown Energy approach to prioritizing household upgrades to efficient, electric devices offers a path to a better bargain for communities. As states and local leaders negotiate with data center developers, they should require investments in local homes through energy upgrades that lower household bills, reduce peak demand, and strengthen the grid. While growing electricity demand poses real affordability challenges, communities that choose to welcome data centers should expect more than promises to limit their impact. They should secure tangible investments that leave households better off.