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Topos Lease Data: The Newest Layer in Site Selection Underwriting
Land scarcity has become the binding constraint on energy and data center development, yet lease encumbrance remains one of the least systematically underwritten risks in the site selection process. Teams model interconnection queues, transmission proximity, and permitting timelines with real rigor. Fewer apply the same discipline to a more basic question: what is already recorded against this parcel, and by whom. Recorded lease data, originating with Topos and now available
9 hours ago3 min read


DOE's $100 Billion Paducah Bet
Inside the site behind Kentucky's new AI and power campus, and what the underlying data shows The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has picked its Paducah Site, a nearly 3,400-acre former uranium enrichment complex in McCracken County, Kentucky, as the anchor for what officials are calling a more than $100 billion private investment in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. The announcement, made in late July 2026, pairs a data center campus with dedicated powe
3 days ago5 min read


Data Center Market Dynamics & BTM Matchmaking for Energy Developers
Utility interconnection queues have stretched into multi-year waits, and hyperscalers can no longer afford to wait in line. That timeline pressure is pushing data center operators to look past traditional grid connections and toward direct power partnerships instead. For energy developers, this shift is an opening, but only for those who know how to find it. Winning a behind-the-meter (BTM) deal isn't just about being available. It requires knowing which operators are facing
5 days ago4 min read


PJM Just Made Grid Power Conditional for Data Centers
On July 27, PJM Interconnection's board directed staff to file a proposal with FERC that changes a basic assumption the data center industry has been building on for two years: that a signed interconnection agreement means firm power. It doesn't anymore, or at least it won't after June 2027, a shift tech and energy press picked up on within a day as a sign the AI buildout had hit a hard limit. The proposal defines a "Large Load" as any customer with 50 MW or more of cumulativ
Jul 304 min read


Siting 2026's AI Superfactories Beyond the 7-Year Grid Queue
Siting next-generation AI infrastructure is no longer an interconnection game. It's a land intelligence game. Interconnection queues across major grid operators now stretch 4 to 7 years, and in some PJM territories a single 100 MW connection can take seven years on its own. Hyperscalers and data center developers can no longer count on a traditional utility power drop to energize a gigawatt-scale campus on schedule. The response: capital is shifting toward behind-the-meter (B
Jul 303 min read


EPA's Acid Rain Exemption for Islanded Power
On July 16, EPA Assistant Administrator Aaron Szabo sent a letter that quietly reshapes the economics of self-generation for data centers. In it, EPA concluded that power plants supplying electricity only to a data center, not to the broader grid, do not fall under the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program. The agency confirmed the interpretation publicly on July 27. Reuters and other outlets, including The Hill, framed it plainly: developers can now sidestep one of the country's
Jul 274 min read


Where Utility-Scale Solar Is Already Banned And Where It's Headed Next
Local government opposition to renewable infrastructure has shifted from isolated zoning hearings to systematic, region-wide restrictions. Here is how four key markets illustrate where utility-scale solar is blocked, constrained, or facing rapid statutory shifts.
Jul 245 min read


Why Prime Farmland Kills Solar Projects and How to Screen for it Before You Option Land
Farmland opposition to solar didn't emerge from nowhere, and it isn't purely local. A handful of forces have converged over the past few years to turn prime farmland into one of the highest-risk categories a developer can option.
Jul 227 min read


BlackRock's $12 Billion Bond Sale Signals a New Financing Playbook for Data Center Developers
On July 20, BlackRock began marketing a bond sale of more than $12 billion to help finance a single data center campus: Meta's project in El Paso, Texas. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are running investor calls this week, with pricing expected early next week. If it closes near that size, it will rank among the largest single-site financings ever assembled for digital infrastructure. For developers watching from outside the hyperscaler tier, the headline number is less in
Jul 215 min read


Meta's $50B Louisiana Bet: The Hyperion Expansion & the New Data Center Playbook
Meta confirmed this week that its Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana, is growing to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, pushing the company's regional investment past $50 billion (CNBC; Blockspace). The project began in December 2024 as a $10 billion, roughly 2 GW campus on a 2,250 acre former farm between Rayville and Delhi. Eighteen months later it is one of the largest data center buildouts in history, and a useful case study in how land, power, and rur
Jul 134 min read


Siting Data Centers on the Subtransmission Grid
For hyperscale campuses, colocation facilities, and edge deployments alike, subtransmission is the variable that determines whether a site can actually be powered.
Jul 76 min read


Inside the Hawesville Site of the $19 Billion Anthropic-TeraWulf Lease
On July 6, 2026, TeraWulf and Anthropic announced a 20-year lease agreement that will turn a shuttered Kentucky aluminum smelter into one of the largest AI infrastructure campuses in the country. The headline numbers are impressive on their own: roughly $19 billion in contracted lease revenue, 401 megawatts of critical IT load, and a phased buildout stretching from second half 2027 through early 2028. But the number that should catch every developer's attention isn't the doll
Jul 76 min read


A Developer's Guide to LandGate's Nationwide Data Center Due Diligence Data
For data center developers, site selectors, operators, and investors, one constraint sits above all others: power. A site can have ideal land, connectivity, and incentives, but if it cannot secure large, reliable power quickly and connect to the grid without prohibitive upgrades, it is not a data center site. Around that central question sit the others that decide a project: fiber and interconnection, real estate and lease economics, tax incentives, backup and resilience, and
Jul 211 min read


A Developer's Guide to LandGate's Nationwide Solar Pro Forma Data
For solar developers, investors, and lenders, knowing that a project will generate well and clear an economic screen is necessary but not sufficient. Before capital moves, someone has to see the full financial statement: what the project costs to build, what it earns and spends every year, how it is financed, and whether the cash it throws off actually covers its debt. That is what LandGate's Solar Pro Forma provides. Where an economic report distills a project into a single
Jul 29 min read


A Developer's Guide to LandGate's Nationwide Solar Due Diligence Report Data
For solar developers, investors, and asset managers, a project lives or dies at the intersection of three questions: can it connect to the grid, what will it earn where it settles, and how do those economics compare to real projects nearby. A strong resource and a clean parcel mean little if the interconnection triggers millions in network upgrades, if the project's pricing node sits well below the trading hub, or if comparable projects are signing offtake at prices this one
Jul 29 min read


Reading the Map Before It's Drawn: How to Evaluate Sites Against Proposed Transmission Projects
Proposed transmission lines are electric transmission projects that have been announced, planned, or are under development but have not yet been constructed or energized.
Jul 16 min read


Severe Weather Is Becoming a Data Center Site Selection Problem
Europe spent this week in a record heatwave, and the headlines focused on the obvious: strained grids, blackouts, and big tech scrambling to keep AI chips cool. For developers, investors, and lenders putting capital into data centers, the more important signal sits underneath that story. Severe weather has quietly become the single largest driver of insured construction losses in the data center sector, and the buildout is moving fastest into exactly the markets with the thin
Jun 296 min read


Air Permitting for Data Centers: What Developers Need to Know About Non-Attainment Areas
The race to secure land for data center development has historically come down to three major factors: fiber, water, and power. But as the grid tightens and power demands skyrocket, a silent deal-killer has emerged in the site-selection process: air permitting.
Jun 265 min read


A Developer's Guide to LandGate's Nationwide Solar 8760 Report & Long Term Generation Data
For solar developers, investors, and asset managers, confirming that a site has strong sun and clean, buildable land is only the starting point. The harder physical question is how the project will actually perform: exactly how much electricity it will generate, when that generation lands across the hours of a day and the seasons of a year, and how steadily that output will decline as the equipment ages. Those questions sit at the heart of LandGate's Solar 8760 & Long Term Ge
Jun 258 min read


Wood Mackenzie acquires LandGate to deliver connected intelligence for the new era of US power markets
Acquisition of 150 million parcel-level land intelligence dataset strengthens Wood Mackenzie’s leading market position and will drive faster, higher-confidence capital allocation decisions for power, renewables, and data center developers. LONDON/HOUSTON/SINGAPORE, 24 June 2026 – Wood Mackenzie, a global leader in data, analytics and insights for the energy and natural resources industry, today announced the acquisition of LandGate. The deal combines Wood Mackenzie’s power ma
Jun 243 min read
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