Ohio Data Center Intel

Recent Ohio data center news

• Mar 31, 2026

  ‘LaPolitics’: Who will replace Foster Campbell on the PSC?

  Term-limited Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell will leave the PSC seat and multiple candidates are contesting to replace him; party primaries are set for May 16.

  • Main announcement: Foster Campbell’s open PSC seat in north Louisiana is being contested by Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins (Republican), James Green (Democratic State Central Committee-endorsed), Austin Lawson (Democrat), and Aiden Joyner (Republican, college student); the article details their policy positions on electricity rates, data center approvals, and infrastructure and notes endorsements (e.g., U.S. Sen. John Kennedy backing Atkins).
  • Background and details: Candidates outline concrete proposals such as establishing an official consumer advocate, tightening oversight of the PSC’s public entities program, reducing guaranteed utility returns on investment, and creating a percentage-of-income payment plan; the piece references the Meta data center project and Entergy’s PSC deal, cites a district vote split (district voted 64% for Donald Trump, 46% for John Bel Edwards) and emphasizes the timeline of the May 16 primary.
• Mar 30, 2026

  No one wanted to redevelop this polluted property. Then came AI.

  Viridian Partners has proposed to buy Janesville’s 250-acre former GM site, remediate contamination, and build an $8 billion, 11-building, 800 MW data center campus.

  • Main announcement:Viridian Partners offers to purchase a 250-acre parcel owned by the city of Janesville, remediate soil contaminated with hydrocarbons, heavy metals and PFAS at an estimated $30 million cleanup cost, and construct an 11-building, 800 MW data center campus with development partner Abbleby Strategy Group; the proposal estimates ~600 permanent jobs and ~13,000 construction jobs, and includes working with Alliant Energy and American Transmission Company to build a new electrical substation.
  • Background and other details: The EPA released guidance (Jan 2026) identifying 335 brownfields potentially suitable for data centers; the article references other large projects such as the $15 billion Stargate data center (OpenAI & Oracle), notes a canceled $20 million EPA community change grant and an ineligible $773 million environmental trust, and documents local energy, emissions, public-health, and political concerns including proposed new natural gas peaking plants, a citizen ballot initiative, and legislative proposals to expand developer access to brownfields funding.
• Mar 28, 2026

  Ohio EPA considers new wastewater permits for data center as locals push back

  The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering a new general permit to allow data centers to discharge wastewater into surface waters.

  • Main action: The Ohio EPA proposes a new general wastewater permit for data centers that would authorize discharges into rivers and streams and speed approvals compared with the current requirement for individual permits, while the agency says it would limit any pollution increases to cases of critical community or economic need.
  • Background and context: Coverage cites multiple regional “megasite“ proposals including a $4 billion Amazon Data Services project in Wilmington, Ohio and a 2,080-acre, 400-gigawatt Maysville, KY project estimated at $1 billion; the article notes local government actions (e.g., Cincinnati City Council rulemaking, Mount Orab Village Council 180-day moratorium) and a recent Clinton County judge-ordered pause on Wilmington movement to allow more public input.
• Mar 27, 2026

  Episode for March 27, 2026

  PennFuture has called for a moratorium on data center development in Pennsylvania until stricter laws can be passed.

  • PennFuture moratorium call: PennFuture has requested a statewide moratorium on data center development in Pennsylvania citing concerns about water use, electricity prices, and increased pollution; the call seeks a pause until stricter laws can be passed.
  • Related, verifiable developments: The central Pennsylvania electric utility settlement would shield average residential customers from data center-related rate increases and requires data centers to pay $11 million for low-income rate relief; the Pennsylvania DEP is considering a proposed Shell ethane cracker permit with higher emission limits; Governor Josh Shapiro is among plaintiffs suing to block the EPA repeal of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding; a Lackawanna County commissioner has proposed an air quality ordinance to address data center emissions and diesel backup generators.
• Mar 27, 2026

  Trump Admin’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge: What It Means for Hyperscalers

  Seven major operators—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI—signed the White House-brokered Ratepayer Protection Pledge on March 4, committing to build, procure, or directly fund new electricity generation capacity and to cover transmission and interconnection upgrade costs rather than passing them on to residential or commercial ratepayers.

  • Main announcement: The seven named hyperscalers signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge (White House-brokered, March 4) to fund new generation and pay for transmission/interconnection upgrades tied to their U.S. data center demand; the pledge explicitly shifts upgrade costs away from residential/commercial ratepayers and toward data center builders.
  • Context and implementation details: States and regional operators are already acting (e.g., Texas Senate Bill 6, PJM process updates) to assign large-load cost responsibility; companies are negotiating tailored agreements (upfront funding, cost-sharing, long-term commitments), examples include Microsoft’s Community-First framework and Microsoft’s involvement in restarting a Three Mile Island unit, while EPRI projects accelerated electricity demand growth through 2030.
• Mar 26, 2026

  Renewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuels: Who Is Actually Winning in 2026?

  Happy Eco News (author Artemis) publishes an analytical piece stating that the energy transition is accelerating in electricity generation but has not yet displaced fossil fuels across total energy demand.

  • Main announcement: The article reports that renewables are rapidly expanding in electricity — citing solar and wind at 17% of U.S. electricity generation in 2024 (756,621 GWh), global clean energy investment of $2.2 trillion in 2025 out of $3.3 trillion total energy spending, and that renewables represented over 90% of new global electricity capacity added in 2025.
  • Background and additional facts: The piece notes that fossil fuels still supplied 58% of U.S. electricity in 2024 and that 82% of total U.S. energy consumption came from fossil fuels in 2023 (University of Michigan factsheet); it also records that global emissions hit a fourth consecutive annual record in 2024 and highlights mounting electricity-footprint scrutiny on sectors such as data centers, streaming platforms, and crypto casinos.
• Mar 26, 2026

  International Data Center Day: Future Frontiers 2030-2070

  Data Center Frontier presents a fictional, forward-looking narrative exploring International Data Center Day activities and future digital infrastructure education.

  • Main announcement/action: Data Center Frontier publishes a plausible-future narrative about International Data Center Day (2030) in which 32 middle-school teams worldwide design, build, and operate tabletop, self-sustaining mini data center campuses using modular racks, fiber, micro solar, tiny wind turbines, programmable robotic operators, and AI agents; judges evaluated efficiency, resilience, innovation, and execution, with winners from India, and recognitions for edge-first and resilience (e.g., a Texas team with a microturbine mockup). Timeline and scale details: event depicted in 2030, final phase runs live AI workloads, and a coda projects to Moon-8 in 2070 — a lunar campus described as 100 gigawatts across eight domes.
  • Background and details: The piece is narrative/speculative (not reportage) and highlights concrete technical constraints: mandatory fiber wiring, power budgeting and dynamic pricing experiments (teams using live grid APIs), predictive maintenance demonstrations, and task-shifting of workloads under thermal and energy limits; it also references organizational context including 7x24 Exchange, Data Center Frontier’s editorial role, and use of AI tools (elements created with help from OpenAI’s GPT5).
• Mar 23, 2026

  Japan Billionaire Masayoshi Son $125 Billion Softbank Group United States Ohio State Data Centre Project to Cost $500 Billion

  Caproasia reports SoftBank Group’s Ohio data centre project is said to cost around $500 billion.

  • Main announcement: Caproasia states that SoftBank Group (chaired by Masayoshi Son) — described as a $125 billion market value company — has an Ohio state data centre project estimated to cost around $500 billion; the article gives no project timeline or technical details.
  • Background/details: Report dateline 23rd March 2026 | Hong Kong, published on Caproasia (author: admin); the article includes images but provides no specifics on project capacity, land/site, contractors, financing breakdown, or implementation timelines.
• Mar 22, 2026

  Ohio leaders clash over data center growth amid cost, environmental concerns

  U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman has introduced two bills aimed at protecting communities from potential harms posed by large-scale data centers.

  • Main action: Landsman’s proposals would require data centers to pay the full cost of their energy demand and infrastructure needs, mandate direct environmental impact studies, and prohibit nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for elected officials involved in data center projects; Landsman said he is committed to pushing these protections forward.
  • Context and additional details: The measures were discussed at a community meeting hosted by the Coalition for Responsible Development and the University of Cincinnati’s School of Environment and Sustainability, where speakers including gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch raised concerns about electricity and freshwater use for cooling; industry representative from DCC stated data centers are “committed to paying our full cost of service for electricity,” and Prologis purchased about 140 to 144 acres in Trenton last spring as potential site land for development.
• Mar 21, 2026

  Trump Officials Announce 10-Gigawatt Data Center, Gas Plans for Former Ohio Uranium Site

  The U.S. Department of Energy announced a public-private partnership to develop a major AI data center and on-site power generation at the Portsmouth site (branded the PORTS Technology Campus).

  • Main announcement: DOE and private partners (SoftBank/SB Energy with AEP Ohio) will develop a data center on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site branded “PORTS Technology Campus”, including a 10-gigawatt data center and up to 10 GW of new power generation (including 9.2 GW natural gas). The department says construction is expected to begin this year and excess power will be fed to the grid; the project is tied to the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement.
  • Background and details: The partnership includes $4.2 billion in grid upgrades and new transmission lines paid by the companies (stated to “will not raise customer rates”), $33.3 billion in Japanese funding tied to the natural gas generation component, and is linked to the SoftBank/OpenAI/Oracle Stargate initiative (a potential $500 billion investment). Officials present included Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum; the announcement references pending local opposition and a petition to ban mega data centers on the Ohio ballot.