The Trump administration is looking into opening up some federal land to construct more data centers in order to support a boom in artificial intelligence.
The U.S. where it said it could help companies build data centers within the next two years.
鈥淭he global race for AI dominance is the next Manhattan Project,鈥� said Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a press release, 鈥渁nd with President Trump鈥檚 leadership and the innovation of our national labs, the United States can and will win.鈥�
Most of the locations highlighted are national laboratory campuses, including the Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., where Wright visited this week.
He said companies are impeded by permitting challenges and finding electricity to power the massive warehouses for computer servers.
鈥淲hat we don't want to do is make it so hard so it gets built somewhere else,鈥� Wright said during a media briefing at NREL. 鈥淪o, we're saying, 鈥榃e have a bunch of land. Tell us where you would like to build on these lands. Let's make a deal.鈥欌��
For example, in documents announcing the opportunity, DOE said NREL鈥檚 Flatiron Campus just south of Boulder 鈥渉as enough land, power, water and broadband capability鈥� to support a 100-megawatt data center as soon as this year.
DOE said it will fast-track permitting of new energy sources, such as nuclear, to power the data centers.
鈥淭he plan of these is,鈥� Wright said, 鈥測ou're going to co-locate power. You're going to build a data center, and you're going to build the power and resources to power it.鈥�
Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, said the industry trade group is 鈥渁bsolutely delighted鈥� by the announcement, noting that some national laboratories already have energy infrastructure and access to transmission lines.
鈥淭hat could really present a win-win that would allow us to get our data centers to market quicker,鈥� he said.
Wright also hinted that the labs could benefit from the arrangements, such as by receiving some of the computing power from the data centers.
Meeting energy demand
In a January , President Biden announced a similar concept to identify federal land for AI data centers. However, Biden鈥檚 plan would have required developers to supply the grid with enough 鈥渃lean鈥� energy to meet their electricity needs. In an emailed response, DOE Press Secretary Ben Dietderich said there would be no such requirement as part of the Trump administration鈥檚 effort.
That could hinder states such as Colorado and utility companies with greenhouse gas reduction goals, said Howard Geller, senior policy advisor for the (SWEEP).
鈥淚f that large data center was powered by natural gas-fired power plants, that's going to make it very difficult to meet the goals,鈥� he said.
Data centers require a lot of electricity. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they could make up 12% of the country鈥檚 electricity use by 2028. Environmental advocates fear more utilities will put renewable energy targets on the backburner to meet the round-the-clock energy demands by doing things such as constructing new gas plants.
In a , Geller advocates that utilities impose a tariff on data center companies to ensure they purchase enough renewable energy to power their facilities.
DOE is seeking information from developers that want to build at these federal sites and the public within the next 30 days. It aims for companies to start construction at sites this year and hopes data centers will come online by the end of 2027.
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau is provided in part by the .
