Lyon County is one of 12 counties nationwide selected to participate in the National Association of Counties’ 2026 Rural Energy Academy, a technical-assistance program intended to help rural governments evaluate large energy and technology projects before making long-term land-use decisions.
The National Association of Counties, commonly known as NACo, launched the three-month cohort to help county officials strengthen local decision-making as rising electricity demand, new technologies and changing state and federal policies bring more energy development proposals to rural communities.
Participating counties receive access to subject-matter experts, peer discussions with other county leaders and individualized technical assistance. The program is designed to help counties produce practical local results, such as updated zoning ordinances, public-engagement plans and strategies for negotiating community benefits from developers. Lyon County was the only Nevada county selected for the 2026 cohort.
Other participating counties are located in Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
The academy’s broader 2026 program covers wind and solar development, battery energy storage systems and data centers. NACo says the purpose is not to promote a particular project or policy, but to help county leaders determine whether proposed development is appropriate for local residents, economies, infrastructure and natural resources.
That work is especially relevant as Lyon County develops its first ordinance devoted specifically to data centers. The draft ordinance addresses power demand, water use, cooling systems, noise, traffic, emergency response, battery storage, on-site natural gas generation and the eventual decommissioning of a facility.
However, much of NACo’s specialized data center programming is scheduled after Lyon County’s Aug. 3 ordinance workshop.
Upcoming academy sessions include:
• An Aug. 11 session addressing data center taxes and economic agreements.
• An Aug. 27 session focused on energy and water resources.
• A Sept. 8 session covering siting and decommissioning.
• A December peer exchange in Dorchester County, South Carolina, where county officials will examine data center growth, infrastructure planning and community partnerships.
NACo is also holding an Energy Symposium Sept. 23-25 in the Texas Panhandle. Programming is expected to include grid reliability, transmission infrastructure, economic development, land-use decisions and the community implications of data center expansion. Commissioner Tammy Hendrix was designated at the Aug. 6 commission meeting to attend on behalf of the county.
The timing does not necessarily mean Lyon County must delay its ordinance. The county may choose to adopt an initial regulatory framework and revise it as officials receive additional technical guidance. But it does raise an important question for commissioners: whether the proposed ordinance should move quickly toward adoption or remain in draft form until the county completes more of the academy’s data-center-specific training.
NACo has also published a data center primer for county officials. The organization says the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing is accelerating data center development and forcing counties to make urgent decisions about land use, energy capacity, water demand and local permitting. The primer is intended to provide a framework for evaluating projects through their full life cycle rather than considering only the initial construction proposal.
For Lyon County, the academy offers a chance to learn from jurisdictions that have already confronted many of the questions now before commissioners: who pays for new electrical infrastructure, how water supplies are protected, how tax agreements are structured, what happens when projects expand and how counties ensure that promised economic benefits outweigh long-term public costs.
The county’s participation does not determine whether data centers should be approved. It is intended to improve the county’s ability to ask the right questions and to put enforceable protections in place before a developer has already committed substantial money to a project.
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