Energy Department Identifies Federal Land For Data Centers, Power Plants
The Department of Energy has selected four federally owned sites to host artificial intelligence data centers and supporting power infrastructure.
Large-scale AI data centers and associated power plants will be developed on sites at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the DOE announced Thursday.
The DOE intends to tap private firms to ultimately develop AI and energy infrastructure on the parcels.
The four locations were chosen from 16 potential sites. The department said it issued a request for information to private firms in April that helped inform the selection of parcels situated for large-scale data centers and new power generation.
In the coming months, the DOE plans to solicit and evaluate proposals from private firms outlining the data center and energy projects they hope to build on these parcels. The selection of developers for each site may be completed by the end of the year.
“By leveraging DOE land assets for the deployment of AI and energy infrastructure, we are taking a bold step to accelerate the next Manhattan Project — ensuring U.S. AI and energy leadership,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “These sites are uniquely positioned to host data centers as well as power generation to bolster grid reliability, strengthen our national security, and reduce energy costs.”
The site selection announcement came less than a week after the Trump administration released its AI Action Plan, a set of policy proposals aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness in what the White House called “a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence.” The plan focuses on measures to promote the rapid build-out of data centers and the energy infrastructure needed to power them, and it specifically mentions utilizing federal land.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order the same day the plan was announced reiterating the call for AI data center development on federal land and ordering the DOE to identify opportunities for such projects. The DOE said the selection of four initial development sites represented headway toward achieving the executive order's goals.
Data center development on federal land was first promoted under the Biden administration. The former president issued an executive order calling for similar efforts in January.
More details regarding the scope of the potential projects that could be developed at each of these sites will be released in the coming months once private sector partners have been identified, according to the DOE. The department is also evaluating additional federal sites that could house more AI data centers and energy projects.
