Washington Data Center Intel

Recent Washington data center news

• Jan 13, 2026

  Sean Turner: Using AI to bridge river models, power grid operations

  Sean Turner at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is developing national-scale hydrology models using large-sample deep learning to simulate river temperatures and to couple river models with power grid operations.

  • Main action: Turner is creating national-scale hydrology models that use large-sample deep learning to simulate river temperature and behavior across 2.7 million stream reaches in the lower 48 states, despite limited observations (~300 long-duration river temperature records; 2 river reaches in Tennessee). He joined ORNL in 2023 and is developing tools to link river models with power grid operations to support scheduling of hydropower resources.
  • Background and details: Turner applies experience from United Utilities, PNNL, and the Joint Global Change Research Institute; the work uses ORNL supercomputing resources and aims to support decisions including siting for small modular nuclear reactors and data centers, and operational planning with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• 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 13, 2026

  Japan Billionaire Masayoshi Son $161 Billion Softbank Group-Owned Digital Infrastructure Company SB Energy Receives $1 Billion Investment from OpenAI & SoftBank in Strategic Partnership to Support OpenAI Infrastructure Development

  SB Energy (part of SoftBank Group) has received a $1 billion investment from OpenAI and SoftBank to support OpenAI infrastructure development.

  • Main action:SB Energy received $1 billion from OpenAI & SoftBank in a strategic partnership to support OpenAI infrastructure development (announcement dated 13th January). The company is described as providing energy and digital infrastructure at scale to support America’s energy demands.
  • Background and related details:SoftBank Group has multiple related commitments and transactions: completed/committed investments in OpenAI totalling around $40–41 billion (including $30 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund and $11 billion from third-party co-investors), a reported ~$22.5 billion transfer to OpenAI in late December 2025, talks to buy DigitalBridge Group (reported $2.5 billion market value; $108 billion AUM), and other transactions including sale of Nvidia shares ($5.8 billion) and partial T-Mobile sales ($9.1 billion).
• Jan 9, 2026

  Meta Announces 6.6 GW Of Nuclear Energy Projects To Power AI Revolution

  Meta has announced agreements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to secure nuclear power for its Prometheus AI supercluster at a New Albany, Ohio data centre.

  • Main announcement: Meta will secure up to 6.6 GW of power by 2035 from agreements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo to support the Prometheus supercluster (expected online sometime in 2026). Vistra signed 20-year power purchase agreements to provide more than 2,600 MW from Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse and Perry; TerraPower deals fund two projects that could begin generating by 2032 with rights to more projects targeted by 2035; Oklo’s advanced nuclear campus in Pike County, Ohio could come online as soon as 2030, and Meta may prepay for power to advance the Aurora powerhouse deployment.
  • Background and related details: Meta previously signed a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to buy Clinton plant power from 2027; rivals Google, Amazon and Microsoft have also struck nuclear-related deals (Google backing Kairos Power SMRs; Amazon/NextEra support to restart Duane Arnold; Microsoft with Three Mile Island/Crane restart plans).
• 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.
• Jan 8, 2026

  9.8-mile transmission line clears key environmental review in Douglas County

  Douglas County Public Utility District has announced a proposal to construct a new 115-kilovolt, 9.8-mile transmission and distribution corridor from Lone Pine Substation near Orondo to O’Malley Substation north of Waterville and to expand O’Malley Substation; the project cleared a SEPA Determination of Nonsignificance issued Dec. 16.

  • Project scope and timeline:9.8-mile 115-kV transmission line, upgrade O’Malley Substation from 0.15 acres to 1.4 acres, move about 15,000 cubic yards of material in hillside sections; initial road work winter–spring 2026, line construction fall 2026–spring 2027, O’Malley expansion spring 2027–complete in 2028. Public comment period on the DNS is open through Jan. 28; submit written comments to SEPA official John M. Brown at Douglas County PUD headquarters, 1151 Valley Mall Parkway, East Wenatchee.
  • Environmental and mitigation details: SEPA conclusion based on a checklist, biological/botanical surveys, cultural resource review and stormwater plan; surveys mapped ~237 acres in a 200-foot corridor (about 79% cropland, 13% native grassland, 8% shrub-steppe); documented wildlife: state candidate sage thrasher, prairie falcon, mule deer; botanical survey found no rare/threatened plants but detected noxious weeds (diffuse knapweed, field bindweed, Russian olive). Mitigation/controls include reseeding with native grasses, silt fencing, straw wattles, check dams, rock pads, roadside ditches and infiltration pad at O’Malley.
• Jan 7, 2026

  The Last Word: HGP Intelligent Energy’s CEO on Repurposing Navy Nuclear Reactors for AI Data Centers

  HGP Intelligent Energy has proposed repurposing the USS Nimitz’s two Westinghouse A4W naval reactors to power land-based AI data centers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and has asked the Department of Energy to transfer the reactors once the carrier is decommissioned.

  • Project scope and financing: HGP estimates the buildout would require up to $2.1 billion in private capital and cites estimated infrastructure costs of $1 million to $4 million per megawatt; the company plans to apply for a Department of Energy loan guarantee and has filed a letter with the White House’s Genesis Mission Office.
  • Technical and contextual details: The reactors are Westinghouse A4W naval fission pressurized water systems from the USS Nimitz (commissioned May 1975; recently returned to Bremerton, Wash. after final deployment); media reports note reactors were built by Westinghouse and General Electric, are designed for long operational lifetimes, and Oak Ridge is the proposed siting location for the land-based AI data centers.
• Jan 6, 2026

  Data Center Jobs: Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Sales, Field Service and Facility Tech Jobs Available in Major Data Center Hotspots

  Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting, published a monthly roundup of current data center job openings on its jobs board.

  • Monthly jobs roundup: The post lists roughly 15–18 open roles (examples: Data Center Facility Technician, Electrical Commissioning Engineer, Construction Project Manager, Senior Electrical Engineer, Production Architect, Strategic Sales Account Manager, Mechanical Engineer, Site Selection Manager/Director/VP, Electrical Project Manager, Electrical Superintendent, Project Executive, MEP Construction Project Manager, Mechanical Commissioning Engineer, Engineering Design Director, Navy Nuke Facility Technician) with locations across the United States including Impact, TX; Ashburn, VA; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA; Reading, PA; Allentown, PA; Charlotte, NC; New Albany, OH; Lyndhurst, NJ; Boulder, CO; Richmond, VA; Austin, TX.
  • Role and employer context: Positions are listed with mission-critical data center providers, engineering design and commissioning firms, A/E/C architecture firms, equipment rental providers, electrical contractors and general contractors; listings repeatedly cite energy efficiency, sustainable design, and AI infrastructure support, and several technician roles explicitly note acceptance of Navy Nuke / military veterans.
• Dec 29, 2025

  Amazon Data Centers Aren’t Raising Your Electric Bills—They May Be Lowering Them

  Amazon Web Services commissioned an E3 study finding its data centers generate surplus revenue and are not subsidized by other utility customers.

  • Main finding and scope: The E3 study projects $33,500/MW in surplus value in 2025 rising to $60,650/MW by 2030; for a typical 100‑MW data center this equates to $3.4 million in 2025 and ~$6.1 million in 2030. The study assessed multiple utility territories including PG&E, Dominion Energy, Entergy, and Umatilla Electric Cooperative, concluding revenues above regulated returns can fund grid modernization without shifting costs to residential ratepayers.

  • Partnerships, structures, and project details: AWS and utilities are using innovative models (e.g., NIPSCO GenCo: 3 GW investment with 2.4 GW for data centers and 600 MW reserved for grid reliability); NIPSCO projects ~$1 billion in cost savings returned as bill credits over a 15‑year duration. Other specifics include Entergy Mississippi’s $300 million Superpower Mississippi grid campaign, AWS’s >600 renewable projects (claimed to power 8.3 million U.S. homes), investments in nuclear and 11 solar-plus-battery projects, and AWS efficiency metrics (Graviton up to 60% less energy, Inferentia2 up to 50% better performance per watt, PUE 1.15 in 2024, 35% embodied carbon reduction).

• Dec 26, 2025

  Starcloud Launches Orbital AI Data Center With NVIDIA H100 GPU

  Starcloud launched its first orbital AI data center (Starcloud-1) into orbit on November 2, 2025, carrying a single NVIDIA H100 GPU and successfully running inference with Google’s Gemma LLM.

  • Deployment details: Starcloud launched Starcloud-1 (a ~60-kilogram satellite, roughly the size/weight of a dorm-room refrigerator) aboard a SpaceX rocket on November 2, 2025; it carries a single NVIDIA H100 in a custom package and has successfully returned inference responses from Google’s Gemma LLM, demonstrating a data-center-class GPU operating in orbit.
  • Background and roadmap: The company positions this as a proof-of-concept for its broader Project Suncatcher and gigawatt-scale ambition; Aetherflux is pursuing a complementary space solar-power architecture described as “an American power grid in space” and a “Galactic Brain” orbital data-center concept with a first node targeted for early 2027. Additional context: NASA issued an RFI on December 15, 2025 seeking AI for Earth-independent space operations; conference research (ISPARO/2025) and small-scale space AI demos (e.g., Astrobee autonomy papers) illustrate parallel advances.