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LA · State profile
Louisiana Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Louisiana — updated daily.
Recent Louisiana data center news
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Moody’s: $3 Trillion Data Center Investment by 2030 Amid Power Challenges
Moody’s Ratings has released its 2026 outlook for global data center infrastructure projecting major investment and highlighting power and AI-related risks.
- Main announcement: Moody’s projects at least $3 trillion in global data center infrastructure investment over the next five years, forecasts global data center electricity consumption to reach ~600 TWh in 2026 (up from 525 TWh in 2025), and estimates the six largest hyperscalers in the US will spend $500 billion in capex in 2026, rising to $600 billion in 2027. The outlook also flags a potential AI investment bubble and rising construction and operating costs due to labor, commodities, and equipment constraints.
- Background and details: Moody’s notes key constraints and responses: power availability (DOE projects AI could account for 9% of US electricity demand by 2030), reliance on pre-leased capacity to large tech tenants increasing counterparty concentration, developers’ short-term use of behind-the-meter generation, medium-term contracts for new generation and transmission, and long-term interest in emerging technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs). The report includes comments from Moody’s senior VPs John Medina and Raj Joshi on lease risk allocation and diversification strategies.
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Meta data center gamble: Who pays if tech giant walks away?
Earthjustice has urged the Louisiana Public Service Commission to reopen its review after Meta disclosed a financing arrangement in which Blue Owl will own 80% of the Richland Parish campus, with Meta retaining 20% and leasing the facility in four-year increments.
- Main action: Earthjustice requested the PSC to reopen review following Meta’s disclosure that Blue Owl will own 80% of the campus while Meta retains 20% and will lease the facility in four-year increments.
- Background/details: Critics warn the structure could allow Meta to walk away later, potentially leaving Entergy customers responsible for power plants and transmission lines built largely for the project; Entergy counters Meta remains legally liable and says the deal will deliver $650 million in customer savings over time.
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How Trump’s anti-renewables policies collide with growth of AI
The Trump administration has paused federal offshore wind permits and curtailed renewable energy incentives, while rising electricity demand from AI data centers is increasing strain on the grid.
- Federal actions halting renewables: The Department of the Interior paused several fully-permitted offshore wind projects mid-construction (five projects off the Atlantic coast were cited); the administration has required personal sign-off from Secretary Doug Burgum for new solar and wind on federal lands (only one new permission granted in the past year); the Republican-led budget bill shortened renewable tax credits originally established under the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Demand-side and mitigation details:Hundreds of billions of dollars (USD) are being invested into AI data centers nationwide, driving sharp electricity demand increases; an example project in the Pacific Northwest involved a data center company paying for a new grid battery that the utility will build and own, allowing the data center to come online earlier while the utility retains ownership of the battery.
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The State of the Science 1 Year On: Environment
The Trump administration has announced multiple rollbacks of U.S. environmental protections and actions to fast-track permits for mining, AI infrastructure, and data centers.
- Major policy actions: Executive orders and budget proposals from the Trump administration include fast-tracking federal permitting for data-center infrastructure (July executive order), expediting mining permitting (goal: as little as 28 days), and an April executive order to revive coal and designate coal as a critical mineral; the administration also ordered closure of 25 USGS Water Science Centers and proposed cuts to NOAA labs and programs.
- Concrete budget and project details: The FY2026 Omnibus proposal (OBBB / OMB materials) includes $2.46 billion cut to EPA Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, $1.01 billion cut to categorical grants for air and water quality, and $721 million cut to USDA Rural Development programs; the Interior announced plans to complete the Velvet-Wood mine environmental assessment in 2 weeks and construction of that uranium/vanadium mine began in November 2025.
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Emerging Data Center Markets: Key Locations to Watch in 2026
Cushman & Wakefield reports that power and land constraints in major U.S. data center hubs are driving operators to consider secondary and tertiary markets.
- Main announcement: Cushman & Wakefield finds power and land constraints in primary hubs (Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland/Eastern Oregon) are shifting site selection toward secondary/tertiary markets; highlights include OpenAI’s Stargate (~$100 billion) and Vantage Frontier (~$25+ billion) as large upcoming projects.
- Details/background: Regions such as Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Central Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are offering economic incentives, faster approvals, and flexible regulatory frameworks; Central Washington offers low-cost hydro power enabling 100% renewable operation but is also facing power constraints.
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Roundup: Inflation / Entergy / Data center real estate
Entergy Louisiana has filed for a property tax exemption under Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program to support a new natural gas-fired power facility intended to serve Meta’s $10 billion data center in Richland Parish.
- Main action: Entergy Louisiana filed for an Industrial Tax Exemption Program waiver to remove local property taxes on a new natural gas-fired power facility that would serve Meta’s $10 billion data center in Richland Parish, requesting an estimated $237 million in tax relief over 10 years.
- Context and additional details: The filing is documented in public records and ties to Meta’s data center project; separately, Digital Realty CEO Andy Power stated “data center real estate is not oversupplied”, and JLL projects sector capacity nearly doubling by 2030 with up to $3 trillion in required investment.
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Meta reaches agreement to buy electricity from Beaver Valley nuclear plant to fuel AI data centers
Meta has reached agreements to purchase nuclear-generated electricity from multiple developers to power its AI operations.
- Main announcement: Meta agreed with Vistra to buy 2,600 megawatts of electricity from three nuclear plants (including Beaver Valley, Perry, and Davis-Besse) over a 20-year period, which also includes 433 megawatts of increased generation; the Vistra agreement would extend each plant’s license by 20 years and Vistra says the project will take nine years to build and provide ~3,000 project-related jobs.
- Additional deals and timelines: Meta also signed separate agreements to buy 1,200 megawatts by 2034 from an Oklo project in Pike County, Ohio, and 690 megawatts from TerraPower (site to be identified “in the coming months”); background: the three Vistra plants had been previously slated to close, and Microsoft has entered a similar nuclear restart agreement for Three Mile Island.
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Trump’s EPA plans to ignore health affects of air pollution
The Trump administration’s EPA is proposing to stop counting the value of human health (the value of statistical life) when regulating ground-level ozone and PM2.5 fine particulate pollution, according to a New York Times report.
- Policy change: The EPA proposal would no longer count the value of human health when performing cost-benefit analyses for regulations on ozone and PM2.5; this change was reported by The New York Times and is described as overturning decades of practice.
- Context and supporting details: The article cites long-established links between PM2.5/ozone and illnesses (asthma, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia, type 2 diabetes, low birth weight) and notes as many as 10 million deaths per year worldwide tied to PM2.5; it also gives a concrete data-centre example — xAI used “dozens of unpermitted natural gas turbines” to power its Colossus data center — and records support for the change from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (quote from Marty Durbin, president of the Chamber’s Global Energy Institute).
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Environmental AI Governance: U.S. and China Have Different Roads to developing Green AI Systems
Jianyin Roachell argues that the United States and China are pursuing divergent approaches to govern AI’s environmental footprint: the U.S. relies on bottom-up, market and state-level measures, while China uses top-down national planning such as EWCRT and mandates for renewable energy in data centers.
- Main announcement/action: The article contrasts U.S. decentralized, market-driven responses with China’s top-down EWCRT (East-West Computing Resources Transmission) strategy that directs new data centers to western provinces (Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia) to leverage cooler climates and abundant wind/solar; China projects data centers could consume 400 TWh annually (~3.2% of electricity) and the NDRC issued guidelines in March 2025 requiring increased renewable electricity shares for big data hubs. The piece cites concrete projects and deals: Meta’s 20-year PPA for a 1.1 GW nuclear plant in Illinois, local proposals for gas-fired plants by Entergy to power Meta, and the $226 million Lin-gang underwater data center project in Shanghai combining renewables and deep-sea cooling.
- Background and other details: The U.S. relies on state tax exemptions (as many as 42 states) and state-level rules (e.g., Virginia 2024 PUE bill; Oregon 2025 water reporting), plus third-party verification like LEED; grassroots protests and state regulatory drafts (Texas, California, Michigan, Minnesota) are shaping policy. Research cited estimates the East-West Data Project could reduce 11,500 Mt CO2 between 2020 and 2050, but China’s grid remains ~60% coal, posing a continued emissions risk unless renewables scale faster.
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Louisiana Signs Seven BEAD Grant Agreements
Louisiana has signed BEAD grant agreements with seven ISPs, finalizing awards that cover nearly 40,000 BEAD locations and are expected to begin construction imminently.
- Main announcement: Louisiana’s broadband office signed grant agreements with seven ISPs — AT&T, Brightspeed, Comcast, Nextlink, Direct Communications, Pelican broadband, and SkyRider Communications — covering nearly 40,000 of the state’s roughly 127,000 BEAD locations; projects are expected to break ground “in the coming weeks” and ISPs have four years to complete BEAD projects.
- Background & details: The awards are part of the $42.45 billion BEAD program; roughly 81% of the state’s BEAD locations are planned for fiber, 8% satellite, 6% fixed wireless, 5% cable; Nextlink will deploy fixed wireless to ~7,500 BEAD locations in Louisiana. NTIA has approved spending plans for 39 states, and states must secure NIST approval (the grants manager) before finalizing contracts. Non-deployment funds are expected to be about $21 billion.