# Data center sites in the United States: demand, grid access and land

> The US market is sold out: **1% vacancy** for a third year and **66 GW under construction**. New grid requests are slow or paused in the top markets: Texas froze new data center approvals in August 2026 and Phoenix’s largest utility has taken no new commitments since 2024. The deals that still close either buy power that is **already in service** or have a documented near-term route to it: a 5-acre Texas site with 15 MW of existing utility service sold for **$8.25 million**, about $550,000 per MW.

Last checked 2026-10-13 · https://ampervia.com/markets/united-states/

- **1%** — vacancy, third year running
- **66 GW** — under construction, 95% pre-committed
- **≈$550k / MW** — paid for a small Texas site with 15 MW of existing service
- **75 MW** — threshold of Texas’s large-load process

## What buyers ask for here

| Who | Where | Size | What they buy | Written |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data center operator, site-selection team | North America | Not yet shared | Sites for own development | Jul 2026 |

One operator has told us in writing that its focus is North America; its size and stage requirements are not yet on file. Anonymised; stated requirements, not commitments to buy a specific site.

## The playbook that works in closed markets

| Route | How it works | Recent example |
|---|---|---|
| Existing service: a site with power in place | Acquire an industrial or data site whose utility service already exists, then expand. | Texas, Sep 2026: 5 acres with 15 MW of existing service and a building shell for $8.25m. The adjacent 24 acres, with 40 MW still to be delivered, cost $8.98m, of which $6m is paid only when the utility places the facilities in service. |
| Existing service: a powered industrial site | Take over an operating industrial connection and seek an upgrade. | Hood County, near Dallas–Fort Worth, Jul 2026: about $10m for 30 acres (with an option on 20 more) and 17 MW operating. The upgrade to 111 MW is subject to ERCOT validation. |
| Deliverable new power: smaller sites | Land with a documented, near-term connection. In Texas, sites under 75 MW fall outside the large-load process; that is not an automatic connection, and a campus cannot be split to get under it. | Two greenfield parcels of 45 MW and 47 MW near Houston, served by nearby operating substations and expected to be energized within 12 months; a 36 MW first phase east of Dallas. |
| Deliverable new power: beside a substation | Land next to a substation with spare capacity. | Irving, Dallas–Fort Worth: a 200 MW campus with immediate access to an existing adjacent substation. |
| Existing service at scale: mines and smelters | Reuse a large connection another industry built. These are much bigger businesses than a single small site. | West Texas: a former bitcoin mine delivered 133 MW to an AI tenant in Jul 2026. Kentucky: a closed smelter’s energized substation now backs a 401 MW, 20-year lease. |
| Generation-backed | Fuel cells or gas turbines on site, with a power partner, until or instead of the grid. | Northern Virginia: one campus approved fuel cells after a five-year grid quote; another plans 60 MW of fuel cells as primary power. |

## Where it is open, and where it is not

| Market | Status for a new site | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas–Fort Worth | New large loads paused; live-power and sub-75 MW sites trading | The governor’s August 2026 order paused new data center interconnection approvals pending an audit. Sites with energized service or under 75 MW are still changing hands. |
| West Texas | Grid paused; on-site power | New campuses bring their own generation: Abilene added a 900 MW behind-the-meter site in 2026. |
| Phoenix | Largely closed (APS); case by case (SRP) | APS has made no new data center commitments since 1 January 2024 and has about 4,000 MW already allocated. SRP studies large customers in a queue and bills new 20 MW+ accounts on at least 80% of forecast load. |
| Central Ohio | Closed until about 2031 | AEP’s study found none of 13,022.7 MW of new data center load can be reliably served before a regional transmission project due about Q4 2031. At least 138 Ohio municipalities and townships have moratoriums. |
| Indiana | Open through utility contracts | A large-load tariff applies from 70 MW at Indiana Michigan Power; Indianapolis approved incentives for a 250 MW campus in September 2026. |
| The Carolinas | Open under large-load terms | Duke Energy signs service agreements with loads of 50 MW or more under customer-protection terms that apply from June 2026. |
| Louisiana | Open at hyperscale, with new generation | Entergy is building more than 5 GW of new gas generation, financed by the customer, for one campus. |
| Kentucky and Pennsylvania brownfield | Proven route | A closed aluminium smelter with about 480 MW available and a retired coal-plant site both sold for data centers in 2025–2026. |

## Where sites come from

The sites that work are the ones with power already attached: energized industrial sites, former bitcoin mines and smelters, land beside a substation with spare capacity. Ampervia’s US research is early: six sites, not yet verified to the European standard, all idled industrial plants with an existing grid tie.

## How the power is won

Power is won utility by utility. Texas studies loads of 75 MW and above in batches and has paused new approvals during a statewide audit. Arizona’s APS is not taking new data center commitments. AEP Ohio cannot serve new central-Ohio load before about 2031. Duke in the Carolinas and Indiana’s utilities still sign large-load agreements. **Equipment on a property is not usable power:** a substation’s rating, a plant’s past consumption and contracted data center capacity are three different things, and only the utility’s service agreement settles which one a buyer gets.

## Planning and regulation

Local opposition is now a siting factor in its own right. Ohio alone has at least 138 municipalities and townships with active data center moratoriums and 23 effective bans; Pima County, Arizona, adopted a 120-day moratorium in September 2026. Check the township before the substation.

## Land and price benchmarks

Land is priced by committed power. Altus puts the median at $2.8 million an acre in Northern Virginia, $100,000–460,000 in central Ohio, Phoenix and Atlanta, and as low as $28,000 where no utility load is committed. Microsoft paid $131 million for 100 acres beside its Goodyear, Arizona campus in 2026; a retired coal-plant site of about 47 acres near Pittsburgh sold for $14.3 million.

## Sources

- [JLL — data center demand exceeds expectations in H1 2026 (11 Aug 2026)](https://www.jll.com/en-us/newsroom/data-center-demand-exceeds-expectations-in-h1-2026)
- [Utility Dive — Oncor weighs impact of Texas data center freeze on nearly 300-GW load pipeline (7 Aug 2026)](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/fate-of-oncors-nearly-300-gw-load-pipeline-unclear-following-texas-data-ce/827303/)
- [KJZZ — APS says it can't commit to new data centers because of grid constraints (2 Sep 2026)](https://www.kjzz.org/business/2026-09-02/aps-says-it-cant-commit-to-new-data-centers-because-of-electric-grid-constraints)
- [SEC — AIB Data Centers Form 8-K: two linked Texas site purchases (Sep 2026)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2070542/000121390026099305/ea0305122-8k_aib.htm)
- [Colocation Scout — AIB Data Centers buys a 29.4-acre Texas site with 15 MW of utility service and 40 MW more contracted (Sep 2026)](https://colocationscout.com/news-aib-texas-29-acre-power-site.html)
- [DCD — Big Digital Energy acquires land for a 311 MW campus outside Dallas-Fort Worth (Jul 2026)](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/big-digital-energy-acquires-land-for-311mw-data-center-campus-outside-dallas-fort-worth-texas/)
- [Spectrum News — Century sells Hawesville aluminum smelter site for a data center (Feb 2026)](https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2026/02/07/hawesville-ai-database)
- [AEP Ohio — data center tariff load study letter (7 Nov 2025, PDF)](https://www.aepohio.com/lib/docs/ratesandtariffs/ohio/AEP-Ohio_DCT_Load_Study_Letter_25.11.7.pdf)
- [Duke Energy — agreement to protect customers from data center costs (2026)](https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-protects-customers-from-data-center-costs)
- [Data Center Knowledge — Crusoe expands Abilene AI campus with a 900 MW behind-the-meter site (Mar 2026)](https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/build-design/crusoe-expands-abilene-ai-campus-with-new-900mw-ai-factory-for-microsoft)
- [Ohio Capital Journal — Ohio has over 125 active moratoriums on data centers (18 Sep 2026)](https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/09/18/ohio-now-has-over-125-active-moratoriums-on-data-centers-see-where-they-are/)
- [AZ Luminaria — Pima County supervisors approve data center moratorium (23 Sep 2026)](https://azluminaria.org/2026/09/23/pima-county-supervisors-approve-data-center-moratorium/)
- [Altus Group — where value is created in data center land (Jun 2026)](https://www.altusgroup.com/insights/where-value-is-created-in-data-center-land/)
- [DCD — Microsoft purchases 100 acres next to its Goodyear, Arizona campus (Jun 2026)](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-purchases-100-acres-next-to-existing-data-center-campus-in-goodyear-arizona/)
- [DCD — Cheswick power plant site in Pennsylvania sold for $14.3m for data center development (Dec 2025)](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/cheswick-power-plant-site-in-springdale-pennsylvania-sold-for-143m-for-data-center-development/)
- [SRP — data centers and SRP (large customer integration process, minimum billing)](https://www.srpnet.com/about/data-center-facts)
- [Utility Dive — Indiana regulators approve large-load interconnection settlement (Feb 2025)](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/indiana-iurc-large-load-interconnection-data-center-aep-amazon-google/740452/)
- [WFYI — Indianapolis approves $240 million tax break for a data center campus (16 Sep 2026)](https://www.wfyi.org/wfyi-news/2026-09-16/city-approves-240-million-tax-break-for-data-center-developers-decatur-township-project)
- [ENR — $27B Meta data center pushes Louisiana toward massive power expansion (Apr 2026)](https://www.enr.com/articles/62766-27b-meta-data-center-pushes-louisiana-toward-massive-power-expansion)
- [The Energy Mag — Big Digital, 10NetZero acquire Texas AI data center site for $10 million (Jul 2026)](https://backend.theenergymag.com/news/2026-07-20/big-digital-10netzero-texas-ai/)
- [Dataprana — acquires 92 MW in Houston metro (23 Jun 2026)](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/23/3316463/0/en/update-dataprana-acquires-92-mw-in-houston-metro-for-planned-ai-development.html)
- [Flexential — new Dallas-area campus on 110 acres in Kaufman County (28 Jul 2026)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flexential-to-build-new-dallas-area-data-center-campus-on-110-acres-in-kaufman-county-302836104.html)
- [PowerHouse Data Centers — PowerHouse Irving: existing adjacent Oncor substation](https://www.powerhousedata.com/news/powerhouse-harrison-street-eye-dfw-data-center)
- [The Block — Galaxy delivers 133 MW to CoreWeave as Helios bitcoin mine turns AI hub (Jul 2026)](https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-07-07-galaxy-delivers-133-mw-of-critical-it-load-to-coreweave-as-helios-bitcoin-mine-turns-ai-hub-407396)
- [Data Center Frontier — TeraWulf's $19B Anthropic lease and its brownfield strategy (Jul 2026)](https://www.datacenterfrontier.com/hyperscale/article/55389531/terawulfs-19b-anthropic-lease-puts-its-brownfield-ai-strategy-to-the-test)
- [Prince William Times — power crunch keeps data centers in the dark (Jul 2026)](https://www.princewilliamtimes.com/localnews/the-big-bottleneck-power-crunch-keeps-data-centers-in-the-dark/article_3b45f243-defa-573c-8ed1-c8709f73ce94.html)
- [DCD — T5 Data Centers plans 60 MW of fuel cells as primary power in Dulles, Virginia (May 2026)](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/t5-data-centers-looking-to-deploy-fuel-cells-for-primary-power-at-planned-data-center-in-dulles-virginia-report/)