Oregon Data Center Intel

Recent Oregon data center news

• Jan 26, 2026

  EPA moves toward changing particulate matter standard as manufacturers urge action

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to revisit and ask the court to vacate the Biden-era annual PM2.5 standard of nine micrograms per cubic meter.

  • Main action: The EPA filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to vacate the March 2024 PM2.5 annual standard (lowered from 12 µg/m3 to 9 µg/m3). The agency said the Biden EPA took a “regulatory shortcut” and failed to adequately consider compliance costs; EPA urged vacatur before the initial nonattainment determinations due on Feb. 7 and states’ implementation plans due in April.
  • Background and details: Industry groups including NAM and 15 trade associations (e.g., SMA, Aluminum Association, American Cement Association) have pressed the Trump administration to revert the standard; EPA previously estimated the 2024 rule could prevent 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays, with monetized benefits of $22 billion to $46 billion and $590 million in estimated costs by 2032. A 2025 ACA report estimated 1 million metric tons of cement needed for AI data centers by 2028 and projects U.S. data centers rising from 5,426 to 6,000 by 2027.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Unplugged: Data Centers Embrace Onsite Power to Break Free from the Grid

  Bloom Energy has released a new data center power report announcing plans and survey findings.

  • Bloom Energy report:One-third of hyperscalers and colocation providers plan to bring power production entirely onsite by 2030; demand for onsite power rose 22% versus six months earlier based on a double-blind survey of 152 decision-makers (hyperscalers, colocation developers, utilities, GPU service providers). The report also states over 50% of new data center campuses are expected to exceed 500 MW by 2035 and identifies a power expectation gap where utilities estimate delivery times 1.5–2 years longer than developers anticipate.
  • Geography and alternatives: The report projects Texas could secure nearly 30% of the US data center market by 2028 and Georgia’s market share to grow by 75%, while established markets (California, Oregon) may decline by more than 50%; it cites fuel cells and behind-the-meter solutions as growing alternatives and references a Research and Markets projection of the fuel cell market reaching $28.4 billion by 2031.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Can PPAs Help Data Centers Navigate the Energy Crisis?

  The article analyses the potential expanded role of PPAs for data center operators navigating constrained grid power.

  • Main analysis: PPAs could be used to secure priority access to limited utility supply and speed up grid hookups for data center operators that sign them; the article positions this as an alternative or complement to behind-the-meter generation, and notes grid connections can take years.
  • Constraints & risks: Regulators and policymakers (for example, Oregon’s POWER Act) may restrict preferential access; PPAs cannot create physical generation where none exists, and there is demand-forecasting risk if operators overestimate future load.
• Jan 23, 2026

  Tax breaks vs. renewable energy offsets: Democrats plan to duel over conflicting Colorado data center bills

  The Colorado Legislature is considering two conflicting approaches to data center policy: an industry-backed tax-incentive bill (House Bill 1030) and a regulatory bill led by state Sen. Cathy Kipp that would require renewable energy offsets and infrastructure cost coverage.

  • House Bill 1030 (industry-backed): would create a nine-member oversight board, offer a 20-year sales and use tax exemption for qualifying data center equipment and systems in exchange for $250 million in infrastructure investments within the first five years, certification requirements (closed-loop cooling or similar, diesel generators meeting EPA standards), jobs paying at least 110% of the average local wage, breaking ground within two years, and the board may extend the tax break 10 more years if companies create 10 additional jobs.
  • Sen. Cathy Kipp’s bill (regulatory approach): would require data centers to match annual energy use with renewable energy (buy or generate), report annually on electricity and water use, pay for necessary grid connection and upgrades, and prohibit utilities from serving a facility if doing so would harm existing service or increase greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years; the bill contains placeholders for protections for employees and communities.
• Jan 20, 2026

  GSN Roundup: Blackstone and Willis Tower, JV’s Big Data Center Refi, and Prestige Closing

  Affinius Capital partnership is seeking a $925 million mortgage to refinance the second phase of the Gainesville Crossing Data Center Campus.

  • Deal specifics: The JV of Affinius and Corscale is pursuing a $925 million mortgage to refinance a fully leased, 482,000 sq ft building with 72 megawatts of capacity; the borrower prefers a floating-rate loan with a 2–3 year term, and Newmark is advising. The tenant is an undisclosed large cloud-computing provider on an initial 15-year lease; the building is part of a planned five-building campus totaling 306 MW.
  • Background & supporting facts: The 130-acre site was bought from Buchanan Partners in mid-2020 for $74.5 million after rezoning in late 2019; Corscale is the data-center arm of Patrinely and Affinius’ predecessor firm is USAA Real Estate, which helped acquire the site. Financial performance issues led Larry H. Miller Co. to close Prestige Financial Services amid an MLB expansion funding push (expansion fee expected to top $2 billion), and Blackstone is separately exploring options around a $1.32 billion securitized loan on Willis Tower.
• Jan 15, 2026

  Powering Progress: How Leaders Build on Dell Storage

  Dell promotes its industry-leading storage platforms and showcases customer deployments across sectors.

  • Main announcement/action: Dell highlights its industry-leading storage portfolio—PowerStore, PowerFlex, PowerMax, PowerScale, and PowerEdge—as the foundation for scalable, reliable data infrastructure used by customers such as The Bank of New York Mellon (using PowerMax and PowerEdge) and Drogaria Araujo; the article cites PowerStore’s 5:1 data reduction guarantee and PowerMax’s multi-site replication as key product capabilities.
  • Background and details: The post provides customer examples and use cases: KiTZ (Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg) using PowerScale for genomic research in Germany, Lightstorm Entertainment and Cosm for media/entertainment workloads, Fulgent Genetics combining PowerStore and PowerEdge for AI-enabled genetic data processing, University of Missouri modernizing with PowerStore/PowerMax/PowerFlex and PowerEdge, and Texas Christian University adopting PowerScale with PowerEdge for its AI² initiative; links to product pages, case studies, and customer stories are provided.
• Jan 14, 2026

  Climate Change Solutions - January 13, 2026

  The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) announced its first Congressional briefing of the year, a wildfire solutions briefing on Tuesday, January 27, hosted with the Federation of American Scientists.

  • Main announcement: EESI will host a Congressional briefing titled “Igniting Innovation: Progress and a Path Forward for Wildfire Policy” on Tuesday, January 27, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (reception to follow) at Russell Senate Office Building, Room SR-385 and online; RSVP available on the EESI briefing page and a reception follows the briefing.
  • Background & related actions: The newsletter summarizes recent federal actions signed by the President including MAPWaters (P.L. 119-62) improving recreational waterway data collection, Save Our Seas 2.0 (P.L. 119-65) reauthorizing EPA marine debris programs, Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization (P.L. 119-67) for USGS research funding, and La Paz County Solar Energy and Job Creation Act (P.L. 119-68) (expected to create more than 700 jobs and provide enough solar and battery capacity to power about 75,000 homes); it also notes wildfire costs of $424 billion annually and highlights EESI coverage on data center water use (cited by multiple media outlets).
• Jan 14, 2026

  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.
• Jan 13, 2026

  X Down For Thousands Of Users

  X suffered another service disruption and regulatory action related to AI-generated content.

  • Main announcement: X experienced a global outage with thousands of users affected; more than 3,000 users in India reported problems at 20:20 IST (issues loading the app and website), and the site was restored shortly after. The report references prior outages in March 2025, and May 2025 (including two outages within 24 hours, one linked to a data centre fire in Hillsboro, Oregon). The article also references a November Cloudflare outage that affected multiple global platforms.
  • Background and related actions: X’s AI model GrokAI generated vulgar images of women; following an official notice from the Electronics and IT Ministry (MeitY), X removed 3,500 posts of obscene content in India and removed 600 accounts linked to such content. The article cites outage tracker Downdetector and mentions Cloudflare’s past network errors impacting many services.
• Jan 9, 2026

  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.