Rhode Island Data Center News

Jan 15, 2026

Dell bolsters PowerStore array with capacity, security features

Dell Technology has announced an update to its PowerStore unified file and block storage array, and the software update (PowerStore 4.3) is available now for existing customers.

Main announcement: Dell announced PowerStore 4.3 and a 30TB QLC drive that enables up to 2 petabytes in a 2U rack (doubling capacity per rack unit) and claims to reduce total cost of ownership by 15%; the update is available immediately to existing customers with integrated features and AI capabilities activated.
Details and background: The release adds synchronous replication over Fibre Channel, asynchronous replication with RPO down to five minutes, Metro sync replication for zero RPO/RTO, NFSv4.2 support (server-side copy, sparse files, labeled NFS), AI-powered anomaly detection, improved QoS and Top Talkers monitoring, and up to 23% better power efficiency versus 15TB QLC-equipped 3200Q appliances introduced in 2024.

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

Vistra to Bolster Gas-Fired Fleet by 5.5 GW With $4B Cogentrix Acquisition

Vistra Corp. has executed definitive agreements to acquire Cogentrix Energy from funds managed by Quantum Capital Group in a $4 billion transaction announced Jan. 5, 2026, adding 10 natural gas plants (5,496 MW) across PJM, ISO New England, and ERCOT.

Main announcement & deal specifics: Vistra will acquire 100% ownership of the Cogentrix portfolio for $4 billion, adding 5,496 MW of modern natural gas capacity (10 plants) and increasing Vistra’s total generation footprint toward ~50 GW; the transaction is subject to FERC, DOJ (HSR), and state regulatory approvals and is expected to close mid-to-late 2026. The deal includes acquiring the remaining 25% interest in the Patriot and Hamilton-Liberty plants and excludes Cogentrix’s Cedar Bayou 4 (550 MW), which Cogentrix will retain.
Background, financing, and timing context: The acquisition follows Vistra’s October 2025 purchase of Lotus Infrastructure gas assets for $1.9 billion (2,600 MW) and is supported by capital markets actions including $2.25 billion in senior secured notes (Jan 2026) and a prior $2 billion secured notes issuance (Oct 2025); Vistra expects mid-single-digit accretion in 2027 and high-single-digit average accretion (2027–2029) to Ongoing Operations Adjusted Free Cash Flow before Growth per share. Regulatory reviews (notably FERC Section 203) will examine competitive impacts in PJM and ISO-NE.

Jan 13, 2026

Can retired naval power plants solve the data center power crunch?

HGP Intelligent Energy LLC has proposed repurposing nuclear reactors from the retired USS Nimitz to power a land-based data center project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Project details: The proposal would redirect two retired naval reactors to an Oak Ridge data center, projected to produce about 450-520 mW of steady power (stated), enough to power roughly 360,000 homes or one data center; the plan requires 5 stages and is estimated to take a decade. The company proposes a revenue share with the government and creation of a decommissioning fund.
Costs, timeline, and regulatory context: The filing estimates rewiring costs of $1 million to $4 million per megawatt (USD) as a cheaper alternative to building new reactors; Bloomberg reported the plan and HGP’s application to the Department of Energy. The proposal faces regulatory and technical obstacles cited by JLL’s Kristen Vosmaer, including weapons-grade uranium possession restrictions, no NRC licensing pathway for military reactors, and the need for complete reconstruction to meet civilian safety standards. As an alternative, floating natural gas turbine barges are noted as deployable in 12–24 months within existing regulatory frameworks.

Jan 10, 2026

Environment and Rule of Law Under Trump

The second Trump Administration has slashed environmental regulations and programs, rescinded environmental justice orders, curtailed climate reporting and grants, and moved to withdraw the U.S. from international climate agreements while seeking to repeal the EPA “endangerment finding.”

Administrative actions and rollbacks: The administration rescinded past environmental justice orders, stopped Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) grants, eliminated EPA’s environmental justice arm, relaxed air and water pollution limits, and proposed ending mandatory greenhouse gas reporting; it also announced withdrawal from IPCC processes and the UNFCCC (the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1992 and went into effect in 1993). EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to issue a final decision repealing the endangerment finding “this month” (Jan 2026), which would trigger judicial review in the D.C. Circuit and likely further appeals to the Supreme Court.
Legal and project-specific details / background:States, environmental groups and courts are challenging many rollbacks; a NYU study alleges repeated DOJ misrepresentations to courts, and the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has intervened earlier in cases; the administration has stopped five major offshore wind farms (one — the Revolution Farm off Rhode Island — was reported ~80% complete and a court ordered it allowed to finish), halted solar development on public lands, and opened the Alaska wildlife refuge to oil and gas development. Courts, appeals panels with numerous Trump appointees, and Congressional dynamics are central to implementation timelines.

Jan 7, 2026

Lenovo unveils purpose-built AI inferencing servers

Lenovo Group Ltd. has introduced a new family of enterprise servers—the Hybrid AI Advantage inferencing lineup—targeting AI inference across cloud, data center, and edge deployments.

Main announcement & products: Lenovo launched three inferencing systems: ThinkSystem SR675i (high-end, AMD EPYC CPUs + Nvidia Blackwell GPUs for large language models and simulations), ThinkSystem SR650i (high-density GPU compute for existing data centers), and ThinkEdge SE455i (compact edge unit rated -5°C to 55°C). All systems use Lenovo Neptune air- and liquid-cooling, are available via TruScale pay-as-you-go, and are supported by new services AI Advisory Services with AI Factory Integration and Premier Support Plus.
Background & additional details: The article cites Futurum Group market estimates that AI inference infrastructure will grow from $5.0 billion in 2024 to $48.8 billion by 2030 (CAGR 46.3%); it notes Nvidia dominates training while inferencing remains open. The services provide professional assistance for identifying, deploying, and managing inferencing servers and data center management support to free IT resources.

Jan 5, 2026

SOCAMM memory gains ground as AI data centers proliferate

Samsung unveiled SOCAMM2, an LPDDR5-based memory module and new CAMM2 industry form factor designed specifically for AI data center platforms.

Main announcement: Samsung introduced SOCAMM2 (LPDDR5) as an industry-standard CAMM2 memory form factor offering up to 2× bandwidth vs DDR5 RDIMMs, 1.5–2.0× reported performance, and ~55% power consumption of comparable DDR5; modules are smaller due to stacked memory and can be used with or instead of DDR.
Background and timeline:Dell originally co-designed CAMM and handed the spec to JEDEC (which added ECC and enterprise features); SK Hynix has announced support (believed behind Micron and Samsung); full market launch is expected around Q2 2026 aligned with Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform launch.

Jan 5, 2026

Everything you needed to know about FLOPs

Andy Patrizio explains FLOPs benchmarking, floating-point precisions, and how benchmarks are used in supercomputing and AI.

Main explanation: The article describes that the Top 500 list measures supercomputers in FP64 (double-precision, 64-bit) as a proxy for scientific computing; FP64 takes twice as long as FP32 and four times as long as FP16, and uses twice (vs FP32) or four times (vs FP16) the memory. The Top 500 is published every June and November. Addison Snell (CEO, Intersect 360) is quoted emphasizing 64-bit remains the de rigueur standard for scientific workloads.
Additional details and vendor/AI context: The article explains precision tiers—FP32 (single precision), FP16 (used for AI inferencing), bfloat16 (Google-originated, licensed to Intel/AMD/Nvidia; described as less precise than FP16 but faster), and FP8/FP4 (FP8 used for inference, some neural network training, and edge cases; FP8 only used on GPUs and not by Intel/AMD according to the article). It warns vendors sometimes advertise peta/exaFLOPs using lower-precision metrics (e.g., FP8) and advises readers to ask the precision behind advertised FLOP numbers.

Jan 2, 2026

State Broadband Bills of 2025: A Legislative Review

State legislatures across the United States enacted and considered broadband-related legislation in 2025; fewer than 140 of more than 600 proposed bills became law.

Main actions: States enacted laws prioritizing infrastructure and permitting reforms, pole and rights-of-way access, criminal penalties for theft/vandalism, state broadband funding, and data center incentives. Notable enacted measures include Hawaii H 934 (established a state Broadband Office and programs, enacted in June and backed by $400 million in combined funding), West Virginia SB 907 (expanded the Economic Development Project Fund to allow up to $25 million annually for broadband incentives and up to $125 million annually for broadband loan insurance) and West Virginia HB 2014 (signed in April; created microgrid districts with zoning/permitting exemptions and special property tax treatment for qualifying projects).
Additional details and timelines: States also raised criminal penalties (e.g., Oklahoma classified willful damage to a critical infrastructure facility as a Class D3 felony with fines up to $100,000 and prison up to 10 years; Louisiana authorized fines up to $50,000 and prison up to 20 years; California AB 476 increased penalties for knowingly buying illegally obtained scrap metal to $5,000). Other enacted programs include California SB 338 (a $2 million telehealth pilot), New Mexico SB 126 (Rural USF increased from $30 million to $40 million), and Oregon’s device support up to $100 in Lifeline-related assistance. At least 37 states passed data center incentives in 2025 and over 1,000 AI-focused bills were introduced nationwide, with ~38 states adopting or enacting roughly 100 AI measures in 2025.

Dec 18, 2025

Climate Change Solutions - December 16, 2025

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) issues a Climate Change Solutions newsletter summarizing recent climate, energy, and environmental policy developments, briefings, and media coverage in the United States.

Newsletter content highlights articles on FEMA reform (FEMA Act, H.R.4669), ghost fishing gear in Hawaiʻi, and global green building standards (LEED, BREEAM), plus an EESI briefing on how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) changed 12 clean energy and efficiency tax incentives and how companies and consumers are adjusting.
Capitol Hill updates cover House passage or advancement of the Electric Supply Chain Act (H.R.3638), ePermit Act (H.R.4503), ESTUARIES Act (H.R.3962 / S.2063), and multiple PFAS bills (H.R.6668 / S.3457, H.R.6626 / S.3460, H.R.6667, S.3445, S.3446), as well as links to EESI legislative trackers, grid and industrial decarbonization briefings, and external media citations of EESI work on data centers, water use, and EERE investments.

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