Inside the site behind Kentucky's new AI and power campus, and what the underlying data shows The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has picked its Paducah Site, a nearly 3,400-acre former uranium enrichment complex in McCracken County, Kentucky, as the anchor for what officials are calling a more than $100 billion private investment in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. The announcement, made in late July 2026, pairs a data center campus with dedicated powe

Utility interconnection queues have stretched into multi-year waits, and hyperscalers can no longer afford to wait in line. That timeline pressure is pushing data center operators to look past traditional grid connections and toward direct power partnerships instead. For energy developers, this shift is an opening, but only for those who know how to find it. Winning a behind-the-meter (BTM) deal isn't just about being available. It requires knowing which operators are facing

On July 27, PJM Interconnection's board directed staff to file a proposal with FERC that changes a basic assumption the data center industry has been building on for two years: that a signed interconnection agreement means firm power. It doesn't anymore, or at least it won't after June 2027, a shift tech and energy press picked up on within a day as a sign the AI buildout had hit a hard limit. The proposal defines a "Large Load" as any customer with 50 MW or more of cumulativ

Siting next-generation AI infrastructure is no longer an interconnection game. It's a land intelligence game. Interconnection queues across major grid operators now stretch 4 to 7 years, and in some PJM territories a single 100 MW connection can take seven years on its own. Hyperscalers and data center developers can no longer count on a traditional utility power drop to energize a gigawatt-scale campus on schedule. The response: capital is shifting toward behind-the-meter (B

On July 16, EPA Assistant Administrator Aaron Szabo sent a letter that quietly reshapes the economics of self-generation for data centers. In it, EPA concluded that power plants supplying electricity only to a data center, not to the broader grid, do not fall under the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program. The agency confirmed the interpretation publicly on July 27. Reuters and other outlets, including The Hill, framed it plainly: developers can now sidestep one of the country's