California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• Apr 27, 2026

  Roundup: Energy from space / Billionaire tax / Herbicide lawsuits

  Meta has struck an agreement to access future capacity of space-based solar power to support its data centers.

  • Main announcement: Meta has struck a deal that gives it access to future capacity from a space-based solar power project intended to one day beam electricity to Earth, aimed at supporting Meta’s growing AI and data center demand. The article is reported by Bloomberg on April 27, 2026.
  • Background and other details: The piece frames this as Meta looking beyond natural gas and traditional renewables to meet soaring data-center energy needs; separate items in the same briefing note report that California backers gathered signatures for a proposed one-time 5% billionaire tax for the November ballot, and the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a Roundup (Monsanto/Bayer) cancer-warning lawsuit.
• Apr 27, 2026

  Rethinking Utility Incentives and Business Models in the Age of Distributed Energy

  Deep Patel (founder and CEO of Gigawatt Inc.) argues that utility incentive structures must be realigned to value distributed energy resources (DERs) and to shift utilities from capital builders to orchestrators of a distributed grid.

  • Main announcement/action: The article calls for regulatory and policy changes to treat distributed energy as a core capacity resource, redesign rate structures and compensation mechanisms to reflect DER system value, and shift utility incentives from capital deployment to outcome and performance-based compensation. It cites concrete utility programs: Con Edison’s Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management (used DERs to defer a substation), Hawaiian Electric customer battery programs, and Green Mountain Power customer-sited storage as examples of implementation.
  • Background and details: The commentary highlights accelerating load drivers — electrification, data centers, and AI infrastructure — and recommends operational changes including feeder-level visibility, improved forecasting for net load, and aggregated DER deployment. It stresses expanding access via community solar and shared storage and integrating DERs into utility planning to defer infrastructure upgrades.
• Apr 27, 2026

  Residents left furious as their picturesque small town surrounded by forests and nature is set to be 'ruined' by sprawling data centers... but they're refusing to back down

  Cornell Realty Management has applied to develop the Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center and multiple developers are preparing to build several large data centres in Archbald, Pennsylvania.

  • Project scope & developer action: Cornell Realty Management applied for the Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center campus (14 centres across 400 acres) and other proposals could see 51 data warehouses built on ~14% of Archbald’s land; developers claim the campus would be at least 1,500 feet from homes, create 1,280 jobs, be as quiet as a ‘normal conversation’, and use about 50,000 gallons of water a day.
  • Permitting, finances & community response: Developers state the project would generate $7 million in annual borough tax revenue and $23 million for the school system; residents and local officials (including Mayor Shirley Barrett) are actively opposing the plans via a Stop Archbald Data Centers Facebook group (~10,000 members) and council meetings. Additional state and local permits are required and construction could still take months to years to begin even if local approvals advance.
• Apr 27, 2026

  A faster way to estimate AI power consumption

  MIT researchers and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab have developed EnergAIzer, a fast estimator that predicts power consumption of AI workloads on GPUs.

  • Main announcement: The team (led by Kyungmi Lee with senior author Anantha P. Chandrakasan) unveiled EnergAIzer, a lightweight estimation model that produces reliable GPU power estimates in a few seconds (vs. hours or days for traditional emulation) and achieved about 8 percent error when tested on real GPU workloads; the research is being presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software.
  • Background and details: The method leverages repeatable software optimization patterns to generate fast estimates, includes correction terms derived from real GPU measurements for accuracy, can be applied to future/emerging GPU configurations, and the work was funded in part by the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.
• Apr 25, 2026

  How do you feel about AI’s environmental impact?

  Gannon Knight’s Roundtable asked Gannon students and staff their thoughts on AI’s environmental impact.

  • Main announcement/action: Gannon Knight surveyed Gannon University participants — including Sam Mason, Ph.D. (Director of Project NePTWNE; oversees the Center for Lake Erie Education and Research, CLEER), Zara Toomaney (senior, Environmental Engineering), and Sophia Cuzzola (junior; IBM SkillsBuild student ambassador) — on April 25, 2026. The article cites external research: University of California, Riverside (reported by The Washington Post) finding that every 100-word AI search uses roughly 519 milliliters of water, and a LinkedIn (2025) stat that 66% of leaders would not hire someone without AI literacy.

  • Details/background: Interviewees noted concrete environmental impacts — AI/data centers require large amounts of energy and water (cooling towers) which can impact nearby cities’ water pressure and quality and increase carbon emissions. They recommended using AI as a service, not a replacement, and urged cross-disciplinary action involving environmental experts, policymakers, researchers, and developers to pursue more sustainable AI practices.

• Apr 25, 2026

  High oil prices could boost renewables, says Energy Vault CEO

  Energy Vault CEO Robert Piconi says sustained high oil prices could make renewable energy and storage solutions more attractive, and the company is seeing a sharp increase in inquiries and firm orders.

  • Main announcement/action: Energy Vault reports a sharp increase in inquiries and firm orders for its battery and long-duration storage solutions, driven by sustained high oil prices, electricity price volatility and an exponential surge in demand from AI and data centres; customers are moving from conceptual interest to utility-scale execution for medium- and long-duration storage.
  • Background and concrete details: Energy Vault listed on the NYSE via a SPAC in 2022, raised more than $200 million (CHF156 million) as a startup and ~$236 million through the SPAC transaction; reported $146 million revenue the year it listed and nearly $350 million the following year before revenues later fell to approximately $50 million; the company now owns and operates two plants with two additional plants under construction, and signed a 10.5-year contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (2024) to provide up to 48 hours of green-hydrogen backup power.
• Apr 25, 2026

  ‘Sustained high oil prices can make renewable energy and storage solutions more attractive’

  Energy Vault CEO Robert Piconi says sustained high oil prices are increasing commercial demand for renewable energy storage and accelerating sales activity.

  • Main announcement/action: Energy Vault reports a sharp increase in inquiries and firm orders for its Battery Energy Storage System solutions across American and European markets, driven by sustained high oil prices, electricity price volatility, and rising electricity demand from AI and data centres; the company now owns and operates two plants with two additional plants under construction, and employs 24 people in Switzerland.
  • Background/details: Energy Vault listed via a SPAC in 2022, raising approximately $236 million as part of the transaction (building on an earlier startup raise of more than $200 million (CHF156 million)); notable contracts and projects include a 10.5-year contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to provide up to 48 hours of green-hydrogen backup power, the Rudong facility opened in 2023 in China, a delivered battery hub for Schindler in Switzerland, and an agreement with Energie Wettingen AG; the company expanded from gravity storage into battery and green hydrogen and moved toward a build-own-operate model after assessing value-chain margins.
• Apr 24, 2026

  Clean and green: Oregon Treasurer talks environmental investments

  Oregon State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner reiterated the state’s climate-focused investment policies, including the Climate Resilience Investment Act (CRIA) passed in 2025.

  • Main announcement/action: Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner described the Climate Resilience Investment Act (CRIA, passed 2025) which requires continued fiduciary responsibility, directs the Treasury to pursue climate-positive investing, and mandates biennial transparency reporting (first report due January 2027). She also cited the state’s Net Zero plan (issued 2024) with targets to reduce portfolio emissions intensity by 60% by 2035 and reach net zero by 2050, and confirmed the Treasury doubled climate-positive real asset investments from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion.
  • Background and details referenced: This segment reports on existing policy rather than announcing a new law (CRIA passed in 2025). Steiner and Sierra Club Oregon Director Damon Motz-Storey discussed implementation details and performance metrics: climate-positive investments returned 20% on average over the past five years versus 12% for carbon-intensive real assets; collaborators mentioned include the Sierra Club, Oregon Department of Energy, and a Portland company Panthalassa exploring wave-energy co-located servers for AI workloads.
• Apr 24, 2026

  Abe Salander: Real Estate and Commercial Strategies for Monetizing Dark Fiber

  LOGIX Fiber Networks announced a major expansion in Texas targeting massive bandwidth demands from data centers under construction in South Dallas and Bastrop County.

  • Main announcement and market drivers: LOGIX Fiber Networks is expanding routes in South Dallas and Bastrop County, Texas to serve the AI-driven hyperscale data center boom, while the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is directing billions of dollars toward last-mile broadband buildout that is increasing demand for middle-mile fiber capacity. The article explains common monetization instruments — IRUs (typically 20–30 year terms) and dark fiber leases (typically 5–10 year terms) — and discusses pricing approaches such as per-strand, per-route, and capacity-based models.

  • Legal, operational, and regulatory context: Utilities must analyze underlying easement and fee title scope, sublicensing authority, and whether landowner consents or supplemental easements are required; coordinate access, maintenance, colocation, and relocation with electric operations; and complete a pre-transaction regulatory review (examples: CPUC approvals in California, FERC accounting/Section 203 review for FERC-jurisdictional assets). The piece is an expert opinion by Abe Salander (real estate counsel) exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

• Apr 24, 2026

  The POWER Interview: How the Oil and Gas Industry is Advancing Geothermal

  XGS Energy has announced a 115-MW development deal with California Community Power and is developing a 150-MW, $1.2-billion partnership with Meta in New Mexico.

  • Main announcement: XGS signed a 115 MW development agreement with California Community Power granting those members first rights to the electricity produced, and a 150-MW partnership with Meta described as a $1.2-billion capital project in New Mexico; the Meta project is two-phased and both phases are expected to be operational by 2030, and will supply Meta’s data center operations via the PNM utility grid.
  • Background and validation: XGS completed a commercial demonstration of its water-independent closed-loop system at the Coso geothermal field running continuously for more than 3,000 hours using its Thermal Reach Enhancement (TRE) and oil-and-gas-derived drilling and casing technologies; the article also cites an IEA finding that geothermal financing reached nearly $2.2 billion last year (up from $22 million in 2018) and references federal incentives (clean energy tax credits retained in the 2025 U.S. budget and DOE’s Enhanced Geothermal Shot).