California Data Center Intel

Recent California data center news

• Jan 28, 2026

  The POWER Interview: A Path Forward for Geothermal Energy

  Rodatherm Energy Corp. completed an oversubscribed $38-million Series A funding round and is developing closed-loop AGS pilot projects in Beaver and Millard counties, Utah.

  • Main announcement: Rodatherm completed an $38-million Series A (September last year) and is piloting its closed-loop, refrigerant-based Advanced Geothermal System (AGS) in Beaver and Millard counties, Utah, seeking to validate efficiency versus traditional water-based systems.
  • Background/details: The company is Utah-based with operations in Calgary, Canada, claims its organic working fluid yields ~50% more power output than water-based systems, targets data centers and communities for baseload power, and lists investors including Evok Innovations, TDK Ventures, Toyota Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, MCJ, Active Impact Investments, Renewal Funds, The Grantham Foundation, and Giga Investments.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Prime Data Centers uses closed-loop air and liquid cooling to earn Energy Star certifications

  Prime Data Centers announced that two of its computing facilities in Dallas and Sacramento earned U.S. EPA Energy Star certification.

  • Main announcement:Prime Data Centers earned Energy Star certification for its Dallas (20-MW) and Sacramento (26-MW) facilities, citing efficiency-driven design, advanced monitoring and benchmarking, and the use of closed-loop air and liquid cooling; the company says both facilities are committed to 100% renewable energy and reported 83% waste diversion at active U.S. construction sites in 2024.
  • Background and commitments: The company’s 2025 sustainability report states it will pursue Energy Star certification for all eligible U.S. data centers, pilot “zero waste to landfill” construction, and aims to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) by 2030 as the main backup-generator fuel; the article also notes 25 major U.S. data center projects were abandoned in 2025, and peers such as Microsoft and OpenAI have pledged to “pay their way” for grid upgrades to support new data centers.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Pumped hydro, high-temperature thermal storage, and geothermal LDES projects make key advancements across the US

  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a 40-year license to Rye Development and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for the 1,200MW Goldendale pumped hydroelectric Energy Storage Project in Washington, US.

  • Main announcement and project details: The FERC license grants a 40-year approval for the 1,200MW Goldendale pumped hydro project developed by Rye Development for fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CI V) on private land at a former aluminium smelter near Goldendale, Washington. The project is expected to have a 4–5 year construction period, an MOU requires union labour via agreements with the Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council and the Columbia Pacific Building & Construction Trades Council, and Rye Development projects over 3,000 family-wage jobs during construction and more than US$10 million each year to Klickitat County upon operation.

  • Other milestones and background: Electrified Thermal Solutions has commissioned a 20MWh Joule-Hive thermal battery at Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, Texas) that stores heat up to 1,800°C, serves 1–5MW thermal loads and targets 2GW of thermal power capacity by 2030; Sage Geosystems closed US$97 million in Series B funding led by Ormat Technologies and Carbon Direct Capital to advance its first commercial Pressure Geothermal plant at an Ormat facility and its EarthStore solution (claims of unlocking over 130× more geothermal potential in the US).

    • Event: Energy Storage Summit USA — 24-25 March 2026, Dallas, TX
      • Agenda/subject: keynote speeches and panel discussions on FEOC challenges, power demand forecasting, and managing the BESS supply chain.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Scientists empower an AI foundation model to accelerate plant research

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed D-CHAG, a new method that more than doubles processing speed and reduces memory usage by up to 75% for hyperspectral plant imaging, enabling training of larger AI foundation models on the Frontier exascale supercomputer.

  • Main announcement: ORNL researchers introduced Distributed Cross-Channel Hierarchical Aggregation (D-CHAG), which uses distributed tokenization across GPUs and hierarchical aggregation to split and merge spectral channels; demonstrated >2x processing speed and up to 75% memory reduction on APPL hyperspectral data and a weather dataset, enabling training of larger foundation models without loss of spatial or spectral resolution. Presented at SC25 (Nov 2025) and run on Frontier at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.
  • Background and details: The work supports DOE’s Genesis Mission and DOE-supported projects including OPAL and a Generative Pretrained Transformer for Genomic Photosynthesis; collaborators and supporters include the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, ORNL laboratory-directed research & development funding, and partner institutions such as Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, PNNL, and RIKEN; next steps include refining models to predict photosynthetic efficiency directly from hyperspectral images.
• Jan 27, 2026

  Nokia Strengthens Edge AI Capabilities Through Strategic Collaboration with Blaize on Hybrid Inference Solutions Across Asia Pacific Regions

  Blaize has announced a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nokia Solutions and Networks Singapore Pte. Ltd. to collaborate on Hybrid AI inference solutions across the Asia Pacific region (announcement dated January 27, 2026).

  • Main announcement: The MOU establishes a non-binding cooperative framework for joint exploration, development, and deployment of Practical AI and Physical AI across Asia Pacific, focusing on edge and hybrid AI inference use cases, reference architectures and solution blueprints, joint validation of AI inference deployments for telecom, industrial, and smart infrastructure, and go to market and ecosystem initiatives including customer workshops, pilot programs, and solution demonstrations.
  • Background and details: The collaboration pairs Blaize’s programmable, energy-efficient AI inference hardware and software with Nokia’s IP networking, data center networking, automation and cloud infrastructure; the MOU is non-binding and states parties may pursue future definitive agreements in the Asia Pacific region. The press release was issued by Blaize on January 27, 2026 and references Blaize’s prior business combination with BurTech Acquisition Corp. and SEC filings for additional risk disclosures.
• Jan 26, 2026

  AI impacts, policy brings frightening implications for environmental future

  Angelina Alkhouri argues that AI’s rapid expansion is creating significant environmental harms and calls for consumer demand, corporate transparency, and proactive policy.

  • Main claim and action: The column calls for consumer pressure, corporate transparency, and proactive policy to address AI’s environmental footprint, citing UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan and examples such as Microsoft, Anthropic, and Meta; it references an S&P Global finding that “Only 21% of responding companies mention sustainability within their AI initiatives.”
  • Background and supporting details: The piece details concrete impacts—server farms/data centers using drinking water for cooling and reliance on rare earth minerals for chips—includes student reactions (Shelby McAlpin, Katelyn Dilbeck), references the United Nations reporting on Sahel displacement, and frames the article as an opinion column urging immediate, verifiable actions (consumer demands and policy development).
• Jan 26, 2026

  Laying the Foundation for Low-Emission Cement and Concrete

  Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced the Concrete and Asphalt Innovation Act (S.1067) in March 2025; the House reintroduced the IMPACT Act (H.R.1534) to establish a temporary low-emission cement, concrete, and asphalt program at the U.S. Department of Energy.

  • Main announcement/action: The Senate introduced S.1067 (Concrete and Asphalt Innovation Act) in March 2025 to accelerate the use of low-emission concrete and asphalt; the House reintroduced H.R.1534 (IMPACT Act) to create a temporary low-emission cement, concrete, and asphalt program at the U.S. Department of Energy (legislative actions introduced/reintroduced in 2025).
  • Background & other details:Market valuation: global green concrete market $39 billion (2024) projected to reach $102 billion (2032); targets to reduce clinker-to-cement ratio include the American Cement Association moving from 0.88 to 0.75 by 2050 and the GCCA projecting a global drop from 0.76 to 0.52 by 2050. Research and industry actions cited: Northwestern University developed a carbon-negative cement from seawater, Qatar University found a concrete mix with treated wastewater + recycled aggregates + 20% fly ash reduced maintenance costs by 60% and life-cycle costs by 19%; tech company partnerships include AWS using low-carbon concrete from American Rock Products for U.S. data centers and Meta partnering with CarbonBuilt.
• Jan 26, 2026

  Vanderbilt Report Argues for 'Dig Once' Policies to Reduce Fiber Instillation Costs

  Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator released a report in December recommending strong “dig once” laws to require installation of conduit during any roadway excavation, shifting conduit installation responsibility toward governments to reduce costs and speed fiber deployment.

  • Main recommendation: Require strong “dig once” laws for federally funded road construction so governments install conduit whenever roads are built or repaired; the report cites studies finding 75% to 90% of fiber deployment costs stem from digging up and repairing roadways (Fiber Broadband Association 2024; FHWA 2012).
  • Context and details: The report notes federal legislative attempts were weakened into notification requirements (states notify ISPs when construction occurs); highlights state examples such as Utah (62.5% fiber coverage vs national average 49%) and other states with laws (California, Washington, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa); it references June 2026 BEAD revisions and urges Congress, during 2026 surface transportation reauthorization, to mandate dig once on federally funded projects.
• Jan 26, 2026

  EPA moves toward changing particulate matter standard as manufacturers urge action

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to revisit and ask the court to vacate the Biden-era annual PM2.5 standard of nine micrograms per cubic meter.

  • Main action: The EPA filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to vacate the March 2024 PM2.5 annual standard (lowered from 12 µg/m3 to 9 µg/m3). The agency said the Biden EPA took a “regulatory shortcut” and failed to adequately consider compliance costs; EPA urged vacatur before the initial nonattainment determinations due on Feb. 7 and states’ implementation plans due in April.
  • Background and details: Industry groups including NAM and 15 trade associations (e.g., SMA, Aluminum Association, American Cement Association) have pressed the Trump administration to revert the standard; EPA previously estimated the 2024 rule could prevent 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays, with monetized benefits of $22 billion to $46 billion and $590 million in estimated costs by 2032. A 2025 ACA report estimated 1 million metric tons of cement needed for AI data centers by 2028 and projects U.S. data centers rising from 5,426 to 6,000 by 2027.
• Jan 26, 2026

  Top 10 Data Center Industry Trends in 2026

  TierPoint has published an article outlining the Top 10 data center industry trends for 2026 and beyond.

  • Main announcement: TierPoint presents a trends roundup emphasizing AI, hybrid cloud, hyperscale, edge computing, automation, cooling/energy, security, and regulatory/compliance. Key facts cited include global data center market growth of over 11% by 2034, the AI market predicted to reach almost $2 trillion by 2030, hyperscale operators forecast to account for 61% of capacity by 2030, 46% of IT decision-makers adopting hybrid-by-design, and 58% of organizations impacted by IT skills shortages.
  • Background and specifics: The article details energy and cooling context and solutions: fossil fuels (including natural gas) made up 56% of data center electricity use, while nuclear + renewables provided 43%; recommends high-density colocation, liquid–air hybrid systems, direct-to-chip cooling, closed-loop liquid cooling, and automation/self-healing infrastructure. It also highlights compliance focus with certifications like ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, and references TierPoint’s 2030 IT Blueprint report and a Cloud Currents podcast episode with Tamanna Sait.