Louisiana Data Center Intel

Recent Louisiana data center news

• Dec 2, 2025

  ‘LaPolitics’: With data centers coming, lawmakers launch energy task force

  Senate President Cameron Henry created the Task Force on Energy Infrastructure and Modernization (Senate Resolution 195) to assess energy needs for data center projects and deliver a report to the Louisiana Senate by March 1.

  • Main action: The task force will evaluate energy infrastructure and modernization needs specifically for data centers; the Louisiana Public Service Commission previously approved Entergy Louisiana’s plan in August to power Meta’s multibillion-dollar data center in Richland Parish, which requires 2.3 GW. Entergy plans to build three new gas-fired power plants and new transmission infrastructure to supply that capacity.
  • Background and details: The task force includes representatives from the PSC (Executive Secretary Brandon Frey was tapped by PSC Chair Mike Francis) and legislators (Senate Natural Resources Chair Bob Hensgens). The group will consider rate impacts, permitting and siting constraints for wind and solar, and stakeholder coordination; the report is due March 1 to the Senate.
• Dec 2, 2025 · RMI

  The Five Types of Electro-Industrial States

  Rocky Mountain Institute presents a typology classifying US states into five electro-industrial archetypes.

  • Main announcement/action: RMI authors classify states into five archetypes — Momentum Hubs (Arizona, California), Fast‑Track Builders (Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio, Idaho), Policy Champions (New York, Michigan, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania), Open‑Door Starters (Vermont, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Iowa), and Early‑Stage Starters (Missouri, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Maine, Alabama, Louisiana, Indiana, West Virginia, Montana, Arkansas). The typology is based on policy reliability, regulatory ease, economic capacity, physical infrastructure (power and interconnection), and market momentum.
  • Background and details: The analysis highlights that market momentum and policy reliability should operate in tandem; low regulatory burdens accelerate short-term investment but may strain local housing and infrastructure without accompanying policy ambition. The authors reference the report GREASE Lightning as a policy playbook for designing investment-led, state-driven electro-industrial strategies.
• Nov 13, 2025

  State subsidies for data centers are often concealed

  Good Jobs First released a report warning most states conceal which companies benefit from data center incentives.

  • Main announcement: The report finds 36 states provide subsidies tailored to data centers but only 11 disclose recipient companies; it focuses on sales and use tax exemptions (excluding property tax abatements and discounted utility rates), warns Virginia forgoes nearly $1 billion annually in tax revenue without revealing recipients, and flags Louisiana for not disclosing how much it is giving Meta to build the world’s largest data center.
  • Background and detail: Deals often use NDAs, code names, and subsidiaries that obscure beneficiaries; the study excludes other common incentives such as property tax abatements and discounted utility rates; Good Jobs First urges states to scale back or eliminate subsidies and says full transparency is the minimum needed for responsible economic development spending, noting expected federal funding cuts will pressure state budgets.
• Nov 5, 2025

  Entergy signs a natural gas deal to support Meta’s data center project

  Entergy Louisiana announced a 20-year natural gas transportation agreement with Energy Transfer to support a data center project.

  • Main announcement: Entergy Louisiana signed a 20-year natural gas transportation agreement with Energy Transfer; the article headline/URLs identify the arrangement as supporting Meta’s data center project.
  • Details & context: The article (Business Report, dated Wednesday, November 5, 2025) states the deal was announced “on Tuesday”; Energy Transfer is described as a leading North American energy firm, and no monetary terms or implementation start dates are disclosed in the visible text.
• Nov 4, 2025

  Power, Proximity, Policy: The Legal Landscape of Siting Data Centers Near Natural Gas Resources

  Michelman Robinson partners Warren Koshofer and Seth Leibenstein analyze the legal and regulatory considerations for siting data centers near U.S. natural gas resources.

  • Main announcement/action: The article provides a legal and practical guide on siting data centers adjacent to natural gas infrastructure, noting concrete facts such as data center loads often exceeding 100 megawatts per site and that natural gas supplies more than 40% of U.S. electricity. It identifies regional hubs (Texas/Permian Basin; Appalachian Basin — Marcellus & Utica; Midcontinent/Great Plains; Rockies — DJ and Powder River basins; Gulf South — Louisiana & Mississippi) and highlights relevant regulators like ERCOT and FERC, plus contractual vehicles such as PPAs and gas tolling arrangements.
  • Background and details: The piece outlines regulatory and compliance requirements (Clean Air Act permitting, Section 401 water quality certifications, state environmental reviews), flags evolving ESG and carbon disclosure pressures (SEC proposals, IRA incentives), and lists states considering restrictions on fossil-fueled generation for new data centers (Oregon, Virginia, Illinois). Contact details for the authors are provided: Warren Koshofer (212-730-7700; wkoshofer@mrllp.com) and Seth Leibenstein (212-730-7700; sliebenstein@mrllp.com).
• Nov 4, 2025

  Entergy Louisiana and Energy Transfer Sign Agreement That Supports Reliable, Affordable Energy and Economic Growth in North Louisiana

  Entergy Louisiana and Energy Transfer signed a 20-year firm natural gas transportation agreement.

  • Agreement details: Energy Transfer will provide 250,000 MMBtu per day of firm transportation service beginning February 2028 through January 2048, with Entergy having an option to expand delivery capacity; the project includes constructing a 12-mile lateral on Energy Transfer’s Tiger Pipeline with capacity up to 1 Bcf/d to serve Entergy Louisiana’s combined-cycle combustion turbine facilities and support Meta’s hyperscale data center in Richland Parish.
  • Background and implementation: The natural gas quantity is included in Entergy’s financial plan; Entergy Louisiana supplies electricity to more than 1.1 million customers in 58 parishes and is advancing its Louisiana 100 Plan (including a stated $100 million community investment commitment); Energy Transfer operates approximately 140,000 miles of pipeline across 44 states and will source gas from its network connected to major U.S. producing basins.
• Nov 4, 2025

  Roundup: Meta goes solar / Airport woes / Commercial real estate

  Meta signed a deal to buy 385 megawatts of power from two new Louisiana solar plants to help run its new $10 billion data center and advance its climate goals.

  • Deal details: Meta signed a deal to purchase 385 megawatts of power from two solar plants built by Treaty Oak Clean Energy in Sabine and Morehouse parishes, which will connect into Entergy’s Louisiana grid to help power Meta’s new $10 billion data center.
  • Other items in the roundup:Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned air travel could worsen if air traffic controllers miss another paycheck (controllers missed pay on Oct. 28 and are scheduled to miss another next Tuesday); Moody’s told CNBC that commercial real estate dealmaking in 2025 is stalled, with overall deal value up 5% year-over-year, hotels lagging, and offices and open-air retail seeing renewed buyer interest.
• Sep 22, 2025

  The FDI shake-up: How foreign direct investment today may shape industry and trade tomorrow

  MGI published a report analyzing announced greenfield FDI projects (2015–May 2025) and finds a decisive shift of announced investment toward future-shaping industries such as data centers (AI infrastructure), semiconductors, EVs/batteries, critical minerals, and low-emissions energy.

  • Main finding: The report analyzes roughly 180,000–200,000 announced greenfield FDI projects and shows that since 2022 ~75% of cross-border announcements target future-shaping industries and resources; announced annualized greenfield FDI rose from $1,137 billion (2015–19) to $1,407 billion (2022–May 2025), driven largely by megadeals (>$1 billion) that now account for about half of total announced value. Key sector details: data centers ≈ $170 billion/yr (since 2022; could reach >$370 billion if early-2025 pace continues), semiconductor-related ≈ $115 billion/yr to new fabs, low-emissions energy ≈ $330 billion/yr (three-quarters of energy announcements), and announced hydrogen ≈ $160 billion/yr (high uncertainty; few projects in construction).
  • Background and additional details: The shift is geopolitically patterned—advanced economies increased investments among themselves (US attracted large inflows, boosted by Advanced Asia investors), while announced inflows to China fell by nearly 70% relative to the earlier period. About 200 megadeals annually (≈1% of deals) drive most value; examples and specifics: TSMC accounted for roughly $100 billion of early-2025 US-directed announcements, the Calcasieu Parish LNG project cited at $17.5 billion, and several large EV/battery gigafactories with targeted openings in 2025–2026. The report emphasizes that announcements are not firm commitments (historical realization rates vary), cites 60–80% typical realization, and notes many hydrogen megaprojects have not reached construction.
• Sep 3, 2025

  New Data Center Developments: September 2025

  DataCenterKnowledge published a curated roundup of recent global data center project announcements and large power and financing deals.

  • Key development summary: The roundup details multiple major projects and deals, including Equinix’s new partnerships with Radiant, ULC-Energy, and Stellaria for next-gen nuclear power and expanded solid-oxide fuel cell use with Bloom Energy; Caterpillar agreed with Joule Capital Partners to provide 4 GW of CHP power for a planned Utah campus (target launch sometime next year); Meta’s Hyperion Louisiana campus is expected to consume up to 5 GW; CoreWeave bought a 102-acre campus for $322 million; Vantage revealed plans to invest over $25 billion in a 1.4 GW / 1,200-acre Texas campus; EdgeConneX and Lambda are developing a 30+ MW dual-city AI data center in Chicago and Atlanta; Oracle / Elea / Rio de Janeiro target 1.5 GW by 2027 (expandable to 3.2 GW by 2032) for ‘Rio AI City’.
  • Background and technical/financial details: The article frames projects against record-breaking demand and grid limitations; it notes energy and cooling approaches such as CHP and captured waste heat, solid-oxide fuel cells, high-voltage battery storage, and CDC Australia’s proposed 200 MW campus with a closed-loop zero-water primary cooling system. It also lists financing and deal figures: QTS announcing a $10 billion campus, STACK investing $1.66 billion in Johor, NEXTDC adding A$3.5 billion new debt within A$6.4 billion total facilities, and Keppel raising $4.9 billion this year toward a $150 billion funds target by 2030.
• Aug 21, 2025

  Entergy to Build Three Gas Plants for Meta’s Biggest Data Center

  Entergy Corporation received approval from Louisiana regulators to build three natural gas plants to supply Meta Platforms’ new Hyperion data center.

  • Main announcement: The Louisiana Public Service Commission approved Entergy’s plan to build three natural gas plants (projected to generate about 2.3 GW), construct new transmission lines, and procure up to 1.5 GW of solar to serve Meta’s Hyperion data center — a four million–square–foot facility in Richland Parish that Meta says could consume as much as 5 GW at full capacity. Meta has agreed to pay its share of project costs and says it will add enough clean and renewable energy to the grid to match the data center’s total electricity use.
  • Background and details: The Louisiana Public Service Commission fast-tracked approval after Entergy warned delays could prompt Meta to site the data center in another state (per a Citigroup report). The decision has prompted criticism from the Alliance for Affordable Energy, with executive director Logan Burke stating concerns about higher electricity bills and impacts on water supply.