Missouri Data Center Market

Climate

Missouri’s weather, with a four-season climate and an average annual temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit, enables free cooling for data centers for up to half of the year (NOAA, Comparative Climactic Data through 2010). About 58 percent of Missouri’s days are sunny. That’s more than 200 days a year, which is ideal for solar-powered data centers.

Tax Incentives

Missouri’s data center incentives include state and local sales and use tax exemptions for qualified equipment, machinery, and utilities. Incentives also include exemptions from state and local sales and use taxes on purchases of tangible personal property and materials for data center construction. New data centers are required to invest at least $25 million and create 10+ new jobs paying at least 150 percent of the county average wage.

Electric Utility

Missouri’s industrial electricity costs averaged 6.19 cents/kWh in 2014—13 percent lower than the U.S. average.

Missouri utility company KCP&L offers additional incentives to make their service area attractive to new and expanding businesses, including their Economic Development Rider (EDR) discount, which provides a discounted rate over five years, from 30 percent in the first year to 10 percent during the last.