Tennessee Data Center News

Feb 24, 2026

These data center developers asked Trump for an exemption from pollution rules

Novva and Thunderhead Energy Solutions requested presidential Clean Air Act exemptions from the EPA under the Trump administration to allow increased generator use at data centers.

Main announcement: Novva sought a two-year exemption to run 96 diesel generators without limits while finishing a 200 MW natural gas plant (the plant was earlier described as taking until 2027 to be built, though the article also says the gas plant is “expected to be operational in the coming months”). Thunderhead requested exemptions for 11 data centers consuming a combined 23 GW across Texas, Montana, and Illinois and proposed (in filings) a 5,000-MW gas plant in Winkler County, while publicly announcing a 250-MW plant in Ector County.
Background and process details: Companies submitted requests to a special EPA presidential-exemption inbox created under the Trump administration, arguing two required criteria: technology to comply is not available and operations are in the national security interest. An Environmental Defense Fund analysis of obtained records found that of more than 500 exemption requests it reviewed, roughly a third were granted; the EPA said it “played no role” and directed questions to the White House.

Feb 23, 2026

JLL: Hyperscale and AI Demand Push North American Data Centers Toward Industrial Scale

JLL has published the North America Data Center Report Year-End 2025 outlining a shift from cyclical real estate behavior to industrial-scale, infrastructure-like growth in digital infrastructure.

Key announcement: JLL’s report finds North America at 39 GW installed capacity (19 GW leased colocation, 20 GW hyperscaler-owned) and 35 GW under construction, with vacancy at 1% and 92% of construction pre-leased; JLL also reports 64% of new builds are in frontier markets and highlights potential for Texas (unified) to surpass Northern Virginia by 2030.
Background/details: JLL expanded methodology to include owner-occupied hyperscale capacity and 40+ additional markets, resetting baseline; it documents capital market activity including debt origination rising from $27B (2020) to $92B (2025), a $40B consortium acquisition of Aligned Data Centers (expected 2026 close), a $30B Blue Owl–Meta JV, and $17B of asset-backed securities issuance in 2025; it flags multi-year grid interconnection timelines (avg ~4 years), interim use of mobile natural gas turbines, and rising BESS deployments.

Feb 21, 2026

Bois Forte Band Begins Construction on $20 Million Tribal Fiber Project

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa has begun construction on a federally funded fiber-optic broadband project backed by a $20 million grant.

Main announcement: The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa has begun construction on a fiber-to-the-home network funded by a $20 million grant awarded under the 2021 Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, targeting delivery of up to 10 Gbps service to over 2,097 largely-underserved Tribal households, businesses, and community anchor institutions; phased rollout of services is expected to continue into early 2026.
Background and partners: The project is a multi-year effort constrained by permitting delays and rising costs (originally planned to serve nearly 3,000 locations), is being implemented in partnership with Minnesota Broadband Cooperative CTC for ISP services, leverages backbone fiber deployed by Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC), and was funded through the NTIA program created by the IIJA.

Feb 20, 2026

AI data centers threaten economic and environmental integrity of Black communities

The Florida Senate Regulated Industries Committee has passed Senate Bill 484 to place new restrictions on large data centers in the state.

Main action: SB 484 passed the Senate Regulated Industries Committee unanimously during the legislative session; the bill targets large data centers by addressing rate protection, water permitting, local government authority, and public transparency, and explicitly prohibits agencies from entering NDAs that block disclosure of data center impacts to the public.
Background and supporting facts: A viral TikTok by creator Zamor (posted Dec. 29) drew national attention—the video had over 1 million views and 400,000 likes as of February; reporting and research cited include datacenters.com (U.S. >3,000 data centers; Florida = 145), a Bloomberg report (Sept. 2025) that utilities bills rose 267% around AI data centers, and a Southern Environmental Law Center press release alleging xAI operated 35 unpermitted gas turbines, increasing peak NO2 by 79% in surrounding areas.

Feb 19, 2026 · Google

“No technology has me dreaming bigger than AI”

Google announced at the AI Impact Summit 2026 that it will invest in large-scale AI infrastructure in India.

Main announcement: Google unveiled a $15 billion infrastructure investment in India, including a full-stack AI hub in Visakhapatnam (Vizag) that “will house gigawatt-scale compute and a new international subsea cable gateway“, announced by Sundar Pichai at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
Background and other details: The speech referenced additional investments and initiatives: four new subsea cable systems between the U.S. and India (America-India Connect Initiative), investments/activities in Thailand and Malaysia, Google’s claim of having trained 100 million people in digital skills, and launch/availability of the Google AI Professional Certificate globally. The content is an announcement given at the Summit (transcript of Sundar Pichai’s prepared remarks).

Feb 18, 2026

Could Texas Overtake Northern Virginia as the Data Center Capital?

JLL’s latest market analysis reports a structural expansion of the North American data center industry driven by hyperscale and AI demand, with vacancy rates at 1% for the second consecutive year.

Key findings & figures: JLL reports 39 GW active capacity and a 35 GW pipeline across North America, with vacancy at 1%; nearly two-thirds of new capacity is being built outside traditional hubs. Texas has 6.5 GW under construction and could overtake Northern Virginia by 2030; there are >10 developments exceeding 1 GW, rents rose 9% in 2025 (and 60% since 2020), most new leases include annual escalations ≥3%, and tenants are targeting deliveries in 2027 or later.
Power, timelines & market shifts: Hyperscalers (the top five cloud providers) plan $710 billion in 2026 capex supporting ~35 GW global capacity; OpenAI and Anthropic account for ~10 GW of announced projects. The report highlights grid interconnection timelines of 4+ years, utilities-delivered capacity expected late 2028–2029, and developers pursuing behind-the-meter generation, microgrids, phased deployments, and early collaboration with utilities and governments to accelerate delivery.

Jan 30, 2026

Tech Leader xAI Investing More Than $20 Billion in Southaven

xAI has announced locating a data center in Southaven, Mississippi, representing a corporate investment exceeding $20 billion.

Project details: The data center will be named MACROHARDRR, involves a corporate investment exceeding $20 billion, is being established in a purchased and retrofitted building in Southaven, and is expected to create hundreds of permanent jobs across DeSoto County; a formal announcement was made in Southaven on January 8.
Background and implementation: xAI’s Southaven site is near its newly acquired power plant site in Southaven and close to one of its existing data centers in Tennessee; upon completion the facility will increase xAI’s computing power to nearly 2 gigawatts, per the announcement and statements from the Mississippi Development Authority (Bill Cork).

Jan 29, 2026

Does solar really need subsidies? How successful renewable energy projects are adapting in 2026

Xendee has published survey-based research and hosted a Factor This panel/webcast summarizing how renewable microgrid projects are adapting in 2026.

Main finding: Xendee surveyed more than 150 industry experts and identified securing funding and utility interconnection as the top challenges for microgrid developers; the article cites a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab finding that interconnection times can reach up to eight years.
Panel insights & context: Panelists Dr. Michael Stadler (Xendee), Jon La Follett (Mayfield Renewables), and Wissam Balshe (Novitium Energy) emphasized design optimization and credible tools for project bankability; they noted solar-plus-batteries remains cost-competitive even after the ITC expiration and is a practical alternative for developers unable to procure or wait for gas turbines. Webinar is available on-demand (registration link included in document_urls).

Jan 27, 2026

Prime Data Centers uses closed-loop air and liquid cooling to earn Energy Star certifications

Prime Data Centers announced that two of its computing facilities in Dallas and Sacramento earned U.S. EPA Energy Star certification.

Main announcement:Prime Data Centers earned Energy Star certification for its Dallas (20-MW) and Sacramento (26-MW) facilities, citing efficiency-driven design, advanced monitoring and benchmarking, and the use of closed-loop air and liquid cooling; the company says both facilities are committed to 100% renewable energy and reported 83% waste diversion at active U.S. construction sites in 2024.
Background and commitments: The company’s 2025 sustainability report states it will pursue Energy Star certification for all eligible U.S. data centers, pilot “zero waste to landfill” construction, and aims to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) by 2030 as the main backup-generator fuel; the article also notes 25 major U.S. data center projects were abandoned in 2025, and peers such as Microsoft and OpenAI have pledged to “pay their way” for grid upgrades to support new data centers.

Jan 27, 2026

Scientists empower an AI foundation model to accelerate plant research

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed D-CHAG, a new method that more than doubles processing speed and reduces memory usage by up to 75% for hyperspectral plant imaging, enabling training of larger AI foundation models on the Frontier exascale supercomputer.

Main announcement: ORNL researchers introduced Distributed Cross-Channel Hierarchical Aggregation (D-CHAG), which uses distributed tokenization across GPUs and hierarchical aggregation to split and merge spectral channels; demonstrated >2x processing speed and up to 75% memory reduction on APPL hyperspectral data and a weather dataset, enabling training of larger foundation models without loss of spatial or spectral resolution. Presented at SC25 (Nov 2025) and run on Frontier at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.
Background and details: The work supports DOE’s Genesis Mission and DOE-supported projects including OPAL and a Generative Pretrained Transformer for Genomic Photosynthesis; collaborators and supporters include the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, ORNL laboratory-directed research & development funding, and partner institutions such as Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, PNNL, and RIKEN; next steps include refining models to predict photosynthetic efficiency directly from hyperspectral images.

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