Colorado Data Center News

Dec 18, 2025

How the 2026 Washington Legislature Can Right-Size the Power Grid

Washington State lawmakers are being urged to overhaul transmission planning and permitting to expand grid capacity and connect more clean energy by 2026.

Main reforms proposed include creating a state transmission authority with revenue bonding power, broadening EFSEC expedited processing to avoid trial-like adjudicative hearings, clarifying or mandating that transmission lines be allowed in most/all local zones, and targeted SEPA exemptions or substitutions where impacts are minimal or already covered by EFSEC standards, all while preserving Tribal consultation and privacy.
Context and details: Article cites New Mexico, Colorado, and California public or quasi-public transmission models, highlights decade-long stagnation in Washington grid build-out, documents multi-year local conditional use permit delays (e.g., Energize Eastside) and their cost pass-through to PSE customers, and references recent historic flooding in Washington as evidence of escalating climate risks that make faster grid expansion urgent.

Dec 18, 2025

2025’s Biggest Data Center Construction Stories: A Year in Review

Data Center Knowledge published a roundup of its top 10 data center construction stories of 2025, highlighting AI-driven expansion, energy and water constraints, zoning conflicts, and new design approaches.

Main roundup details: The piece spotlights the Stargate Project (OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle) pledging up to $500 billion to build up to 20 AI-ready facilities across the United States; JLL forecasted 10 GW of new capacity set for 2025 with roughly 7 GW delivered; SMR (small modular reactor) deployments are referenced as potential power solutions as early as 2027.
Background and concrete points: Reports document specific industry constraints — heavy AI compute equipment pushing slab-on-grade construction and single-story layouts, water-use/cooling risks for hyperscalers, zoning ambiguities in Missouri and northern Virginia, proposed tariffs affecting imports from Mexico, Canada, and China, and an example where Cove Architecture used an agentic AI platform to produce a 10,000 sq.ft. Colorado design in ~30 days.

Dec 16, 2025

How Data Centers Became the Hidden Backbone of Our Modern World

Stepchange Ventures’ co-founders, writing in the MCJ Newsletter, outline how data centers have evolved into critical infrastructure, how AI is driving unprecedented power demand, and why this creates both grid constraints and opportunities for more sustainable, abundant energy and compute.

Data centers emerged from early internet hubs like MAE-East and One Wilshire into hyperscale regions such as Ashburn, Virginia, where data-center-zoned land can reach $6M per acre, while overbuilt fiber networks and subsequent advances like virtualization, cloud (EC2 in 2006), containers, and serverless steadily increased hardware utilization and enabled Web 2.0 and hyperscale cloud growth.
Power efficiency innovations—including PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) invented by Christian Belady (typical mid-2000s PUE ≈ 2.5, pushed toward 1.1 by hyperscalers) allowed internet traffic to grow 17x (2010–2020) with relatively flat energy use, but the rise of AI GPUs and 5GW-scale builds now creates 10–100x more power-hungry data centers, intersecting with broader load growth from industrial expansion and electrification, and prompting calls to reengineer chips, grids, and infrastructure for an abundant, sustainable era.

Dec 16, 2025

US ROUNDUP: Shell immersion cooling partnership, PNNL begins utility-scale battery tests, ON.Energy in 5GW transformer deal

EticaAG has partnered with Shell to integrate Shell’s MIVOLT ester-based dielectric liquids into EticaAG’s immersion-cooled BESS; PNNL has begun 100kW utility-scale battery testing at the Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL); ON.Energy signed a 5GW transformer supply agreement with Prolec GE to support AI UPS deployments starting in 2026.

Main announcements:EticaAG + Shell will combine EticaAG’s non-flammable immersion cooling with Shell’s MIVOLT ester-based dielectric liquids for commercial, industrial, grid-scale and mission-critical BESS; PNNL’s GSL is now testing up to 100kW systems (facility construction began 2022; cost quoted at US$75 million; dedication Aug 2024) and will first test an Invinity VRFB; ON.Energy signed a 5GW transformer supply agreement with Prolec GE to enable deployment of ON.Energy’s AI UPS across data-centre campuses from 2026.
Background and details:GSL testing addresses previous limits below 10kW and will evaluate services such as peak shaving and frequency regulation; Invinity’s partnership with Guangxi UESNT aims to reduce VRFB costs; ON.Energy previously secured a US$77.6 million construction credit agreement (Pathward, NA and BridgePeak Energy Capital) to develop a 160MWh Palo de Agua BESS portfolio across Texas (multiple 9.9MW/20MWh projects).

Dec 15, 2025

How AI Data Centers Redefined the Industry in 2025

Data Center Knowledge published a roundup of the 10 most-read AI data center stories of 2025, highlighting major projects, industry reports, policy developments, and public sentiment around AI-focused infrastructure.

Main announcement and headline projects:Project Rainier ($8 billion) by AWS supporting Anthropic (over 500,000 Trainium 2 chips, planned to double to 1,000,000 by end of 2025); an Indiana campus described as 30 data centers x 200,000 sq ft; industry totals include $92 billion announced for AI infrastructure and reporting that nearly 75% of new data centers are being designed with AI workloads in mind.
Background, report findings and policy details:Turner & Townsend found 47% expect AI-focused data centers to host >50% of workloads within two years and projects AI-optimized facilities to be 28% of the market by 2027; liquid cooling carries a 7–10% cost premium but offers environmental/regulatory advantages; public survey results: 93% recognize importance of AI data centers, 35% support local construction, 9% believe local economic benefits outweigh environmental concerns; the UK AI Action Plan contains 50 recommendations but faces funding gaps and environmental concerns.

Dec 15, 2025

Permitting the AI Boom: A New NEPA Landscape for Energy Infrastructure Projects

The authors (Hunton attorneys) summarize how recent Congressional amendments, a Supreme Court decision, CEQ action, and executive orders have reshaped NEPA to streamline permitting for energy infrastructure and data center projects.

Main announcement: Congress enacted NEPA amendments (Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act 2025) and the Supreme Court issued Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County (May 29, 2025) establishing substantial deference to agencies and limiting NEPA to reasonably foreseeable environmental effects; the OBBBA allows developers to opt into expedited review by paying 125% of anticipated EA/EIS costs, triggering 180-day deadlines for EAs and one-year deadlines for EISs.
Background and implementation details: CEQ rescinded prior NEPA regulations (interim final rule following Feb 2025 D.C. Circuit decision), issued revised guidance (Sept 29, 2025) and directed agencies (DOE, Corps, DOI) to adopt streamlined procedures (EA/EIS deadlines, fewer public comments, expanded categorical exclusions, allowance for applicant-prepared documents); Presidential EOs (Jan 20, 2025 and July 2025) and the AI Action Plan prioritize permitting for fossil fuel and dispatchable baseload resources and call for categorical exclusions and FAST-41 listing; DOE/Secretary directed FERC to initiate rulemaking to expedite interconnection of large loads (data centers) under 42 U.S.C. § 7173.

Dec 11, 2025

What to Do With Remaining BEAD Funds, a.k.a 'Non-Deployment'?

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice prioritizing lowest-cost bids, voiding previously approved state plans, and rescinding authorization for non-deployment activities.

Main action and effects: NTIA’s June 6 BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice requires states to resubmit plans within 90 days, eliminates scoring criteria for labor practices, climate resilience, and affordability, and replaces multi-criteria evaluation with a single metric—total BEAD cost per location; NTIA now estimates roughly $21 billion in BEAD “savings” across 56 states and territories.
Background and specifics: States had planned to use non-deployment funds for workforce development, digital literacy, telehealth, device subsidies, and community anchor institution connections (examples: Louisiana $510 million, Florida ~$200 million); litigation risk and Congressional pushback (bipartisan letters, proposed RECAPTURE Act) are active, and NTIA has promised guidance in early 2026. The draft White House executive order would link eligibility for remaining funds to state AI regulatory frameworks, adding a legal and political dimension.

Dec 11, 2025

House Passes Rep. Evans’ Bill to Lower Energy Costs, Increase Grid Reliability

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 3628, the State Planning for Reliability and Affordability Act, led by Rep. Gabe Evans, to address energy costs and grid reliability.

H.R. 3628 aims to help utilities plan for rising electricity demand, maintain sufficient reliable generation to prevent power outages, and protect consumers from sudden energy cost spikes linked to poor planning or rapid retirement of power plants.
The bill introduces new federal standards for state regulatory entities such as the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, requiring greater consideration of energy reliability and affordability, and is publicly backed by House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain and Rep. Evans as part of a broader effort to counter existing regulatory approaches.

Dec 10, 2025

Top Environmental Victories of 2025

The Sierra Club announces a roundup of its top environmental victories in 2025.

Major announced actions: The article catalogs specific legal, legislative, and advocacy wins including: stopping a proposed public-lands sell-off after Congressional withdrawal; passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act in New York (following Vermont in 2024) and introduced bills in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Maine; legal victories blocking Commonwealth LNG (coastal use permit terminated) and two lawsuits creating guardrails on data centers in Kansas and Michigan; NEVI program restart unlocking $2.7 billion for EV charging; and a $744 million jury verdict against Chevron for coastal damages in Louisiana.
Background and additional details: The piece lists species and land protections (Northern Rockies wolves, Colorado bison, Rice’s whales), closure of Merrimack Station (final New England coal plant) and repeal of an Ohio coal-bailout that would have cost nearly half a billion dollars, passage of Utah’s balcony solar law allowing small plug-in systems without utility approval, a coalition delivering ~500,000 public comments to defend the Roadless Rule (including 40,000 from Sierra Club advocates), and a world-record origami action sending more than 86,000 paper fish to oppose Enbridge’s Line 5.

Dec 4, 2025

What’s the best way to expand the US electricity grid?

MIT researchers published a study assessing legislative approaches to U.S. electricity-grid expansion and their tradeoffs on cost, emissions, and reliability.

Main finding & action: The MIT team used the Gen X model (MIT Energy Initiative) to evaluate two expansion strategies and legislative proposals (including the BIG WIRES Act). The study finds an optimized, geographically imbalanced buildout is 1.13% less expensive and reduces carbon emissions by 3.65% versus a prescriptive, nationally uniform build; conversely, a prescriptive approach with increased interregional connectivity (modeled at 30% of peak-load transfer) would reduce outages from extreme cold by 39%. The paper is published in Nature Energy and lists authors Juan Ramon L. Senga, Audun Botterud, John E. Parson, Drew Story, and Christopher Knittel.
Background & implementation details: The analysis models policy language similar to the BIG WIRES Act (co-sponsored by Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Scott Peters), which would require each transmission region to send at least 30% of its peak load to other regions by 2035. The study compares the two approaches and a hybrid option, highlighting concrete tradeoffs between cost, emissions, and reliability based on modeled outcomes; methods used include the MIT Gen X energy-generation model.

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