Illinois Data Center Intel

Recent Illinois data center news

• Oct 5, 2026

  Vertical Data Centers Face Cost-Proximity Trade-Offs

  Revitalization Unlimited has proposed a 20-story data center tower in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), but the project still requires approval.

  • The proposed facility would sit on approximately 0.23 acres, support 24 MW of IT load, and target a PUE of 1.25; Steve Austin said it would use 30 MW of on-site Bloom fuel cells and that total development costs are estimated at $183 million.
  • The related city development plan ordinance is listed as on hold until October 13; Austin said the project would include active ground-floor space, noise and generator-hour conditions, construction apprenticeships, and public reporting, with no tax abatement requested.
• Oct 2, 2026

  From Opposition to Buy-In: Tactics for Data Center Developers

  The article is a commentary and recap of guidance shared at the Data Center World Power event in Dallas about community opposition to data centers and how developers should respond.

  • It highlights transparency, power planning, and community engagement as key recommendations from speakers including Diane Sullivan of Hecate Energy, Dado Slezak of QTS Data Centers, and Alise Porto of Switch.
  • It references specific examples such as a QTS project in Iowa with a utility agreement to fix and subsidize community electricity rates for five years, and notes that Grow NELA has cut permitting timelines to 15 days in Louisiana.
• Sep 30, 2026

  The United States Department of Commerce and the Government of the Republic of Korea Announce Strategic Investment in Project Star, a $22.3 billion Energy Infrastructure Campus in Encinal, Texas, being jointly developed by Related Companies and NextEra Energy, in partnership with Lewis Energy Group

  The United States Department of Commerce and the Government of the Republic of Korea have announced support for Project Star, a new $22+ billion energy infrastructure campus in Encinal, Texas.

  • Project Star will be developed by Related Companies and NextEra Energy Resources with Lewis Energy Group; it includes 6.47 GW of natural gas generation to support an adjacent 5 GW data center campus.
  • The project is expected to be built in phases, with initial generation coming online as early as 2029, and is described as part of the U.S.-Korea Trade Deal and Strategic Investment MOU implementation.
• Sep 30, 2026

  ArcLight Completes Acquisition of 50% Stake in 5.4-GW Diversified Power Infrastructure Portfolio

  ArcLight Capital Partners has announced that its fund has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in IATP, a 5.4-GW diversified power infrastructure portfolio.

  • ArcLight acquired a 50% stake in IATP; Invenergy retains the other 50% ownership and the operational role.
  • The portfolio includes 11 power infrastructure assets across North America, including Grays Harbor Energy Center (Washington), Nelson Energy Center (Illinois), Lackawanna Energy Center (Pennsylvania), and St. Clair Energy Centre (Ontario, Canada); financial terms were not disclosed.
  • ArcLight said the portfolio is positioned to serve demand from AI, data centers, and broader electrification; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to ArcLight.
• Sep 30, 2026

  POWER Honors Bloom Energy’s KR Sridhar with 2026 Executive Leadership Award

  POWER’s article announces that KR Sridhar, founder, chairman and CEO of Bloom Energy, received POWER’s 2026 Executive Leadership Award for advancing distributed, on-site power for data centers and AI demand.

  • Bloom Energy’s history and commercial milestones are summarized, including its 2001 founding, 2006 first field trial, 2008 commercial launch, 2018 NYSE listing, and later manufacturing expansion in Fremont, California.
  • The piece highlights major customer and financing relationships: Bloom’s arrangement with Equinix surpassed 100 MW in February 2025 across 19 data centers in six states; Oracle expanded its Bloom relationship in April 2026 to as much as 2.8 GW with an initial 1.2-GW deployment; Brookfield Asset Management committed $5 billion in October 2025 and raised that commitment to $25 billion in June 2026.
• Sep 25, 2026

  Retired and Retiring Coal Plants Offer the Grid’s Fastest Path to New Capacity

  Briggs White argues that retiring coal plants should be repurposed as the grid’s fastest path to new capacity. This is a commentary article, not a first-time corporate announcement.

  • White says coal sites offer interconnection, transmission, water, industrial land, transportation access, and a trained workforce, making them attractive for data centers, manufacturing, electrification, solar, gas, and nuclear projects.
  • Examples cited include D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments’ 240-MW solar-and-storage project in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana; Xcel Energy’s Sherco site in Becker, Minnesota with 710 MW online today and 910 MW by 2029; and TerraPower’s Natrium reactor near the Naughton coal plant in Wyoming. The article also notes a 2022 study finding coal-site reuse could cut a new nuclear plant’s capital cost by 15% to 35% versus greenfield.
• Sep 24, 2026

  Data centre buildout uplifting US BESS market outlook, Wood Mackenzie says

  Wood Mackenzie has released its Q3 2026 US Energy Storage Monitor, projecting stronger US battery storage growth and highlighting data-centre-driven demand as a key support for the market.

  • The report says US storage installations will grow over 50% in MW terms over the next five years, with utility-scale storage projected to expand at an 8% average annual rate and over 130GW/534GWh of utility-scale BESS expected between 2026 and 2031.
  • The report cites Q2 2026 record US BESS installations of 5.4GW/18.9GWh, notes Massachusetts DOER is distributing about US$40 million to 36 BESS projects, and references recent actions including Tumbleweed Energy Storage commissioning in California and Base Power’s US$1 billion Series D at a US$13 billion post-money valuation.
• Sep 23, 2026

  Climate Change Solutions - September 22, 2026

  Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) has published a climate-focused newsletter previewing an upcoming Super El Niño briefing and summarizing recent Capitol Hill activity.

  • EESI announced an online briefing on Friday, September 25 at noon EDT about Super El Niño, with welcome remarks from Reps. Mike Flood and Eric Sorensen and RSVP links provided.
  • The newsletter also notes the House and Senate action on several bills, including the Water Resources Development Act of 2026, the Ratepayer Protection Act affecting data center-related grid upgrades, and the Hydropower Licensing Transparency Act; it also promotes EESI resources and a new podcast episode.
  • This is a newsletter/update, not a standalone corporate deal announcement; it references prior and current legislative developments and upcoming events rather than announcing a new funding commitment.
• Sep 22, 2026

  Meta, Apex Clean Energy agree to 144-MW Texas solar PPA

  Apex Clean Energy and Meta have announced an expansion of their joint clean energy portfolio to 1.2 GW through a new power purchase agreement for Apex’s 144-MW Starling Solar project in Texas.

  • The Starling Solar project will be developed in Gonzales County, Texas and is expected to begin commercial operations in 2027; ERCOT’s August queue report lists an anticipated COD of Jan. 28, 2028 and says it has completed the security screening study and entered the full interconnection study phase.
  • Meta will receive exclusive rights to all environmental attributes from the project, including all renewable energy credits; Apex said the agreement structure is confidential. The companies said their combined portfolio now includes seven projects across Texas, Virginia, Illinois, Kansas and Iowa.
• Sep 21, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

  Mobilizing for Techno-Economic War, Part 7: Transforming Regulatory Policy

  ITIF has published a policy report arguing for a major transformation of U.S. regulatory policy to support national techno-economic competition with China.

  • The report says Congress should centralize national issues such as AI regulation, preempt many state privacy/AI laws, and reduce federal barriers for nationally important projects such as industrial parks, infrastructure, and data centers.
  • It also argues for NEPA repeal, Section 404 repeal, size-neutral rules, antitrust reform, and a new Commerce Department process to designate up to 100 projects per year for streamlined approval; it also proposes federally designated industrial readiness zones of 50–100 sites of at least 3,000 acres each.
  • Monetary values mentioned include $98 billion–$112 billion annually in potential out-of-state privacy compliance costs, $1 trillion+ over 10 years, $650 million in a Facebook BIPA-related settlement cited in the report, and $100 billion a year for carbon removal referenced in a supporting example.