Florida Data Center Intel

Recent Florida data center news

• Feb 25, 2026

  Climate Change Solutions - February 24, 2026

  The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) released a newsletter highlighting data center impacts, policy developments on Capitol Hill, and upcoming briefings and events.

  • Main announcement: EESI highlighted rising household energy costs driven in part by data center demand, noting electricity prices have risen by up to 267% since 2020 in high-concentration data center areas and that wildfires cost the United States up to $424 billion annually. The newsletter features the article “Data Center Power Demands Are Contributing to Higher Energy Bills,” a podcast on wildfire philanthropy, and announces briefings including “Understanding Load Growth and Energy Affordability” on Thursday, February 26 (3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building, Gold Room (Room 2168) and online).

  • Background and other details: The newsletter summaries recent legislative actions and events: Senate Energy Committee advanced the Critical Mineral Consistency Act of 2025 (S.714); House Committee approved the ACERO Act (H.R.390) to authorize NASA’s ACERO project; Senate Foreign Relations agreed to the Protecting Global Fisheries Act of 2026 (S.1369); House introduced the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R.7567). Events listed with dates/times/locations:

    • Understanding Load Growth and Energy Affordability — Feb 26, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building, Gold Room (Room 2168) and online
    • Igniting Innovation: Progress and a Path Forward for Wildfire Policy — Mar 3, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Russell Senate Office Building, Room 385 and online (Reception to follow)
    • Strategies to Lower Utility Bills Now for Households and Small Businesses — Mar 12, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building, Gold Room (Room 2168) and online
    • 2026 Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum (EXPO 2026) — Jun 24, 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building Foyer and Gold Room and online
• Feb 25, 2026

  CTA Official Says It’s Time to Reclaim and Auction TV Station Spectrum

  The Consumer Technology Association’s SVP Michael Petricone called on Congress to pursue an “Incentive Auction 2.0” to reclaim and auction spectrum licensed to TV station owners.

  • Main action: Michael Petricone (CTA SVP of Government & Regulatory Affairs) urged Congress to reclaim broadcaster-held spectrum via an “Incentive Auction 2.0”, to auction it openly and let the market allocate it to its highest value uses; he also called for removing regulatory advantages that favor legacy TV stations and criticized proposals to loosen ownership rules to permit more mergers and consolidation.
  • Background and other details: The National Association of Broadcasters (Grace Whaley) pushed back defending local stations and praising FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for modernizing rules; the article also references related telecom items including Akamai opposing a USF tax on CDNs, calls to protect CBRS from auction, four ISPs joining an open-access network in Los Alamos, a Florida bill to make Big Tech pay data center energy bills, and a Starlink–Microsoft partnership to serve developing nations.
• Feb 23, 2026

  NVIDIA Brings AI-Powered Cybersecurity to World’s Critical Infrastructure

  NVIDIA is collaborating with Akamai, Forescout, Palo Alto Networks, Xage Security and Siemens to bring accelerated computing and AI to OT cybersecurity.

  • Main announcement: NVIDIA and partners will embed AI-driven, zero-trust security into OT/ICS by running security services on NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, enabling agentless discovery, agentless segmentation, local inspection/enforcement at the edge, and centralized analysis in AI factories; demonstrations are scheduled at S4x26 (Feb. 24–26, Miami).
  • Details and background:Forescout provides continuous, agentless discovery and policy enforcement for OT/IoT/IT; Akamai has extended the Guardicore Platform to run on BlueField for agentless segmentation; Palo Alto’s Prisma AIRS runs on BlueField for deep traffic inspection; Xage (which already protects about 60% of U.S. midstream pipeline infrastructure) will show zero-trust integrations on BlueField; Siemens will demonstrate an AI-ready Industrial Automation DataCenter with IEC 62443-aligned cybersecurity and edge data center capabilities.
• Feb 22, 2026

  Data centers in Ohio: Economic boost or environmental burden?

  House Bill 646 would create a data center study commission to examine data center expansion across Ohio and assess environmental and grid impacts before projects move forward.

  • Main announcement: House Bill 646 proposes a bipartisan data center study commission that will examine environmental effects, electrical grid impacts, water usage, noise, and local economic impacts prior to project approvals; the bill is currently in committee.
  • Background & details: Ohio has about 200 data centers (many clustered in Central Ohio); New Albany has seen 14 companies build more than 68 data centers (about 40 operational). Policy Matters Ohio reports at least $140 million in tax exemptions granted for data center construction and estimates up to $1.6 billion in potential state/local revenue foregone tied to incentives for Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The article cites concerns including a proposed Adams County facility that would use >20x the county’s electricity, potential water use of up to 5 million gallons/day, and reliance on diesel backup generators (sound levels up to 90dB). Microsoft has pledged carbon negative by 2030 and a community-first infrastructure commitment; Amazon aims net-zero by 2040 and to power some operations with nuclear by 2050.
• Feb 20, 2026

  AI data centers threaten economic and environmental integrity of Black communities

  The Florida Senate Regulated Industries Committee has passed Senate Bill 484 to place new restrictions on large data centers in the state.

  • Main action: SB 484 passed the Senate Regulated Industries Committee unanimously during the legislative session; the bill targets large data centers by addressing rate protection, water permitting, local government authority, and public transparency, and explicitly prohibits agencies from entering NDAs that block disclosure of data center impacts to the public.
  • Background and supporting facts: A viral TikTok by creator Zamor (posted Dec. 29) drew national attention—the video had over 1 million views and 400,000 likes as of February; reporting and research cited include datacenters.com (U.S. >3,000 data centers; Florida = 145), a Bloomberg report (Sept. 2025) that utilities bills rose 267% around AI data centers, and a Southern Environmental Law Center press release alleging xAI operated 35 unpermitted gas turbines, increasing peak NO2 by 79% in surrounding areas.
• Feb 20, 2026

  Renewal Fuels Moves to Become American Fusion, Names 3 to Kepler C‑Suite

  Southlake-based Renewal Fuels Inc. has announced it is changing its legal name to American Fusion Inc. and has appointed three senior leaders to Kepler Fusion Technologies after Kepler became its wholly owned subsidiary following a December 2025 merger.

  • Main announcement: Renewal Fuels filed to change its legal name to American Fusion Inc. in January 2026, confirmed that Kepler Fusion Technologies (Midland, TX) is now a wholly owned subsidiary after the December 2025 merger, and appointed John E. Brandenburg, Ph.D. (CTO), Dwight Cartwright (COO), and Travis Yakimishyn (Chief Electrical & Power Systems Officer); the company plans a power-as-a-service model with long-term PPAs starting at 6.25 cents per kilowatt-hour and targets industrial sites and data centers for Texatron deployment.
  • Background and next steps: Kepler is developing the Texatron aneutronic fusion platform (development stage) and reported more than 238 patents in the pipeline; the company is interviewing candidates for independent board positions and completing steps for a listing on a major exchange (noting the Texas Stock Exchange as a potential fit).
• Feb 4, 2026 · Google

  Q4 earnings call: Remarks from our CEO

  Alphabet announced Q4 earnings and CEO Sundar Pichai summarized major product and infrastructure milestones including Gemini 3 adoption and a large 2026 CapEx plan.

  • Main announcement: Alphabet reported Q4 results with annual revenues exceeding $400 billion, highlighted the launch and momentum of Gemini 3, and announced 2026 CapEx guidance of $175 to $185 billion; Sundar Pichai also noted intent to acquire Intersect (data center and energy infrastructure solutions) and detailed Cloud, YouTube and Waymo metrics.
  • Additional details/background:Cloud is on an annual run rate of over $70 billion with a $240 billion backlog, YouTube annual revenues surpassed $60 billion, Google reported over 325 million paid subscriptions, Gemini App has 750 million MAU, and the company reduced Gemini serving unit costs by 78% over 2025.
• Jan 30, 2026

  Climate Change Solutions - January 27, 2025

  The U.S. Congress has enacted the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act of 2026 (H.R.6938), signed into law by the President.

  • Main action: The appropriations minibus (H.R.6938) was signed into law, providing FY2026 funding for agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy, EPA (including ENERGY STAR®), NASA, and the Forest Service; bill summaries for Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment appropriations are linked in the newsletter.
  • Other legislative and policy items referenced:NFIP Extension Act of 2026 (H.R.5577) advanced in the House to extend NFIP authorization through September 2026; Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative Reauthorization Act (H.R.2860) was reported out with $10 million annually through 2031 for the Northwest Straits Commission; the Advancing Cutting Edge (ACE) Agriculture Act (H.R.7142 / S.3637) was reintroduced to reauthorize the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority. The newsletter also announces an EESI briefing postponed (wildfire briefing) and lists upcoming briefings (dates, rooms, and RSVP links).
• Jan 29, 2026

  NERC Warns Long-Term Grid Reliability Risks Mounting from Surging Demand, Lagging Resources

  NERC released the 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (LTRA) on Jan. 29, 2026 highlighting accelerating grid reliability risks driven largely by data centers and AI-related load growth for the 2026–2035 period.

  • Key findings and concrete metrics: The assessment projects summer peak demand rising by 224 GW and winter demand by 245 GW over the next decade (2026–2035) based on mid-2025 data; it identifies 13 of 23 assessment areas facing elevated or high resource adequacy risk, cites 105 GW of planned generator retirements (a 10 GW reduction from last year), notes battery/wind/solar increased by 23 GW year-over-year, and reports 41,000 miles of transmission projects above 100 kV under construction/planning (versus 28,275 miles last year) with ~900 projects of which ~390 are delayed.
  • Regions, programs, and recommended actions: Regions flagged as elevated/high risk include MISO, PJM, ERCOT, WECC-Northwest, WECC-Basin, and SERC-Central; FERC-approved expedited resource programs (late summer 2025) for MISO, PJM, and SPP are noted though most additions were not modeled; the assessment highlights fuel assurance concerns (Canada: 97% firm gas rights example) and recommends expedited resource additions, streamlined siting/permitting, and coordinated electric–gas planning to address near-term adequacy shortfalls.
• Jan 29, 2026

  Wider view of risk, resiliency needed to thrive in an era that promises uncertainty

  Facilities Dive reports experts advising facilities managers to broaden disaster preparedness in 2026 to include non-weather risks such as energy insecurity, civil unrest, physical and cyber threats.

  • Main guidance: Experts (Laurie Gilmer of Facility Engineering Associates; Paul Morgan of JLL) recommend expanding resiliency planning beyond natural disasters to cover energy/IT outages, civil unrest, workplace violence, theft (e.g., copper) and cyber/physical attacks; they emphasize assessing where mechanical/electrical equipment is sited, preparing backup power and enabling remote operations.
  • Background & specifics:Sedgwick forecasts at least one major U.S. hurricane likely in 2026; California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection forecasts above-normal large fire potential; the EIA projects electricity consumption growth of 1% in 2026 and 3% in 2027 and reports retail electricity price at 13.63¢ per kWh at end-2025; experts note data center demand (including AI data centers) stressing grids (PJM) and growing interest in microgrids, solar + battery systems, VLAN isolation for BMS, smart cameras and advanced security measures.