Getting your news
Attempting to reconnect
Finding the latest in Climate
Hang in there while we load your news feed
CO · State profile
Colorado Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Colorado — updated daily.
Recent Colorado data center news
-
Nodiac partners with PowerBank to colocate modular data centers with solar and BESS across North America
Nodiac has signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with PowerBank Corporation to formalize a partnership to co-develop modular data centers colocated at PowerBank’s solar and battery storage sites across North America.
- Main announcement: The JDA establishes a defined framework for joint development and cash flow distribution to deploy one–20MW modular data center units at distribution-level interconnection points on sites where PowerBank holds generation capacity, land, and permits; site-specific terms will be negotiated and are subject to definitive agreements, permits, technical feasibility, and financing.
- Background and details: The JDA formalizes an LOI first announced in April; Nodiac has a pipeline exceeding 800MW across more than 500 identified sites in 30+ US states, while PowerBank claims a development pipeline exceeding 1GW with more than 100MW operational; Nodiac also signed an LOI this month with SkyVolt Energy to deploy its modular solution across SkyVolt sites.
-
Climate Change Solutions - June 30, 2026
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) recaps Expo2026 panels and highlights recent policy developments.
- Main announcement: EESI summarizes the 29th annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum (Expo2026), providing links to full recorded panels on topics including permitting reform, energy affordability, data centers, and building and grid resilience; the newsletter links to EESI’s YouTube recordings and lists speakers and organizations for each session.
- Policy and event updates: The newsletter reports the Senate Agriculture Committee’s draft Farm Bill (PDF link provided) and notes the House passed H.R.7567 in April; it also records recent congressional actions including passage of S.629 (Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act) through the House, passage of S.4822 (Saving the Ocean Observatories Initiative Act of 2026) in the Senate, reintroduction of S.4867 (Small Farm Conservation Act), and introduction of S.4870 to reauthorize Earth MRI; it lists upcoming EESI briefings on July 16, 2026 (Nitrogen pollution research roadmap) and July 24, 2026 (drought impacts).
-
Carolina West Wireless to Transfer Mobile Network to Verizon
Carolina West Wireless has announced it will shut down its wireless service by Sept. 30, 2026 and transition its network to Verizon.
- Main action:Carolina West Wireless (CWW) will cease wireless operations by Sept. 30, 2026 and is transitioning its network to Verizon; customers who switch to Verizon before July 30 will receive a $150 Mastercard gift card per line and Verizon will not charge mobile line activation fees. CEO Slayton Stewart said the decision reflects rising infrastructure demands and the company pledged support for employees via severance and career services. CWW did not disclose the fate of its FCC-overseen wireless licenses.
- Background and reaction: CWW was founded in 1991 and is owned by a partnership of Skyline Telephone and Surry Communications; the Competitive Carriers Association President & CEO Tim Donovan urged sustainable USF operational expense support for rural carriers and called on Congress and the FCC to act promptly. Links to CWW customer transition FAQs and local reporting are cited in the article.
-
FERC show-cause orders aim to speed large-load integration
FERC has issued tailored show-cause orders to six regional RTOs/ISOs requiring them to justify or reform large-load interconnection rules and to provide generation-availability details.
- Main action: FERC issued tailored show cause orders to ISO-NE, NYISO, PJM, MISO, SPP and CAISO giving them 60 days to “justify or reform” interconnection rules for data centers, manufacturing facilities, and other large energy users,” and requiring grid operators and their transmission owners to provide details on how they make adequate generation available within 30 days**.
- Background & specifics: FERC identified five reform categories to address (1) transmission application and study processes including alternative technologies, (2) preventing cost shifting and increasing cost transparency, (3) accommodating co-location agreements and behind-the-meter generation, (4) new transmission services for flexible large loads, and (5) studying generation proximate to large loads. Grid Forward solicited commentary from Bruce Grabow (Sheppard Mullin) and Ray Gifford (Wilkinson Barker Knauer) who emphasized that the order aims to “facilitate speed to power,” noted jurisdictional limits, and compared the action to historic FERC oversight efforts.
-
WideOpenWest Expands Broadband Network in Central Florida
WideOpenWest (WOW!) announced expansion of its all-fiber network to 20,000 additional homes and businesses in Seminole and Orange counties, Florida, to be completed by fall 2026.
- Expansion: WOW! will add 20,000 additional homes and businesses in Seminole and Orange counties, Florida to its all-fiber internet network, with availability expected by fall 2026; with this addition the network will reach nearly 75,000 homes and businesses in Central Florida.
- Investment & background: WOW! has invested over $140 million in Central Florida since 2022; the announcement was published via a company release (PR Newswire) and quoted Chief Experience Officer Heather McCallion.
-
NAIRR Science Program Reshapes Scientific Research, Powered by NVIDIA AI Infrastructure
NVIDIA announced its contribution to the NAIRR pilot, providing dedicated NVIDIA DGX access and technical support to researchers.
- Main announcement: NVIDIA provided researchers in the NAIRR pilot with a cloud-based resource guaranteeing a minimum of four NVIDIA DGX nodes for at least a month plus technical onboarding and support; the NAIRR pilot has supported over 700 projects across the past two years. The University of Michigan team used a 40-GPU NVIDIA DGX cluster (from a NAIRR allocation) and an additional 200,000 NVIDIA GPU hours on ALCF’s Polaris for MIST model development.
- Background and project details: NAIRR-enabled projects highlighted include Polymathic AI’s Walrus foundation model (dataset, code and pretrained weights made public) for fluidlike simulations, University of Michigan’s MIST molecular models for energy storage fused with LLMs, and Boston University’s BEACON LLM pipeline for infectious disease detection (processing HealthMap, news, social media and other signals). The announcement summarizes implementation over the past two years and documents concrete compute allocations and public releases.
-
Climate Change Solutions - June 16, 2026
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) released new fact sheets on lithium and cobalt and announced its 29th annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO (EXPO 2026).
- New EESI publications: EESI published fact sheets on Lithium and Cobalt, noting the U.S. relies on imports for >50% of lithium consumed and 76% of cobalt consumed; the newsletter links to a 2025 Critical Minerals Issue Brief for deeper analysis.
- Event and policy updates: EXPO 2026 is scheduled for Wednesday, June 24, 2026, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (reception 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.) at the Rayburn House Office Building Gold Room (Room 2168) and online; the newsletter also reports House action on the Agriculture Appropriations Act (H.R.8646) providing $22.5 billion to USDA through September 2027, and updates on geothermal permitting bills and the DOMINANCE Act to secure critical mineral supply chains.
-
From Tail Risk to Design Baseline: How the Grid Is Adapting to Extreme Heat
POWER (Sonal Patel) reports that system planners and grid operators are now treating extreme heat as an assumed operating condition rather than a tail risk.
- Main announcement/action: POWER summarizes that system planners and reliability entities (notably NERC and FERC) and operators are treating extreme heat as a design baseline, citing metrics such as EIA projection of ~1,610 CDDs for 2026 (4% above 2025), NERC’s 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment (net internal demand up 1.3% to 790 GW, and >58 GW of new on-peak capacity including 16.4 GW solar, 14.7 GW batteries, 6.7 GW natural gas, 1.6 GW wind), and FERC’s forecast of $46.81/MWh average wholesale price for summer 2026. The piece catalogues operational changes (hourly ambient-adjusted transmission ratings, dynamic line ratings pilots, ADMS/DERMS deployments) and emergency interventions (DOE Section 202(c) orders covering roughly 4,400 MW of extended capacity service).
- Background and details: The article documents drought risks (FERC: 62% of continental U.S. impacted; Lake Powell inflow forecast at 13% of average), potential loss of up to 4,500 MW of Colorado River hydropower as soon as August 2026, rapid data center load growth (from 44 GW in 2025 to 55 GW in 2026, ~25%), and operational timelines (PJM implemented AAR on March 4, 2026; SPP expects AAR by Sept. 1, 2026; MISO full compliance by Q2 2028).
-
Arkansas County’s Data Center Moratorium Failed Over Vote Miscount
Pulaski County Quorum Court’s proposed yearlong moratorium on data center development will not take effect after officials determined the vote had been miscounted.
- County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth said the measure received 8 votes, short of the 10 needed for passage (the original count showed 10 votes). The ordinance was originally sponsored by Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood, who plans to reintroduce it as soon as she can. The failed ordinance included an exemption for AVAIO Digital Leo.
- AVAIO Digital Leo is a planned data center near Wrightsville; project manager Thomas Nesel said the center’s daily water demand would be about 200,000 gallons during warmer months and it would initially require 150 megawatts, with demand estimated to reach 1 gigawatt as the facility grows. Republican Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers supported the exemption, saying the company had “spent a heck of a lot of money to invest in this community.” The article also notes similar local actions: Denver passed a yearlong moratorium and Minneapolis passed a six-month moratorium on new data centers.
-
Data Center Jobs: Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Sales, Field Service and Facility Tech Jobs Available in Major Data Center Hotspots
Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Pkaza, posts the latest data center career opportunities on its jobs board.
- Main announcement: Data Center Frontier and Pkaza have published a roundup of active data center job openings covering roles such as Mechanical Applications Engineer, Electrical Commissioning Engineer, Project Coordinator, Architect Design Manager, Electrical Project Manager, Commissioning Project Manager, Controls PM, Facility Operations Director, Project Executive (Owner’s Rep), and other critical-facilities positions across multiple U.S. locations (examples include Pittsburgh, PA; New Albany, OH; Ashburn, VA; Charlotte, NC; Denver, CO; Naperville, IL). Many roles note remote, traveling, or multiple-city availability and relocation options where specified.
- Background / details: This is a recurring/monthly jobs-posting series powered by Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting and the Data Center Frontier jobs board; listings emphasise employer needs for MEP/critical facilities design, commissioning, mission-critical power and cooling expertise, energy efficiency and LEED experience, and include travel/remote work options and multiple-site listings for several roles. No monetary values, contract amounts, or deal announcements are included.