LandGate Resources

A 250 MW data center campus can now face roughly $1 million in non-refundable fees, and a wait of six or more years for grid interconnection in parts of PJM, before a single rack goes online. Those two numbers, drawn from LandGate's own research into the data center power crisis, explain why the traditional site selection checklist has quietly been rewritten. Land cost, tax abatements, and workforce availability still matter, but they no longer decide the outcome the way powe

Available transfer capacity, interconnection queue position, and offtake capacity are the three terms that now decide whether a data center or renewable energy site actually works, before land price, tax incentives, or fiber ever enter the conversation. If you can't quickly answer "how much power can this substation actually deliver, and how long until it's available," you don't yet have enough information to evaluate a site. This guide defines the terms that matter, in plain

On August 20, 2026, the Tennessee Valley Authority's board approved something utilities across the country are now racing to copy: a dedicated electricity rate class just for data centers, carrying an average 10% bill increase phased in over three years, plus new upfront capacity-commitment charges for any data center that wants to interconnect. TVA's leadership framed it plainly: the goal is to build "capacity and transmission systems necessary to be right below what the dem

In this guide, we break down how transmission planning models are used for data center site selection and generation interconnection, detail key regional model standards (MMWG, MTEP, SSWG, RTEP), and present a comprehensive directory of the 189 transmission planning models integrated directly into LandGate's vertical intelligence software and AI Data Agent.

At a specific bus in southern Dallas County, the ERCOT 2025 planning model shows approximately 915.8 MW of Available Transfer Capability for generation injection — and 0 MW for additional load. LandGate's project database maps a 550 MW planned hyperscale data center development to that same node. Half a gigawatt of demand is queued for a location the planning model shows cannot currently take it. The regional ERCOT local forecast shows steady demand growth across North Texas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For hyperscale campuses, colocation facilities, and edge deployments alike, subtransmission is the variable that determines whether a site can actually be powered.

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

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

Proposed transmission lines are electric transmission projects that have been announced, planned, or are under development but have not yet been constructed or energized.

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

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

The most established data center market in the country has agreed to tax the industry's power consumption for the first time. The deal is capped and temporary, but the signal it sends to developers, investors, and lenders is anything but. What the Virginia data center tax deal does After a months-long budget standoff that nearly triggered Virginia's first government shutdown, state House and Senate Democrats reached an agreement that imposes a new tax on data center electrici