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

By Razvan Toma · Founder & CEO, Ampervia · Last checked 2026-10-13 · Sources linked below

1%vacancy, third year running JLL

66 GWunder construction, 95% pre-committed JLL

≈$550k / MWpaid for a small Texas site with 15 MW of existing service SEC

75 MWthreshold of Texas’s large-load process UUtility Dive

What buyers ask for here

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. SEC+1
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. DCD+1
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. DDataprana+1
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. PPowerHouse Data Centers
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. TThe Block+1
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. PPrince William Times+1

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. UUtility Dive+2
West Texas	Grid paused; on-site power	New campuses bring their own generation: Abilene added a 900 MW behind-the-meter site in 2026. DData Center Knowledge+1
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. KKJZZ+1
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. AAEP Ohio+1
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. UUtility Dive+1
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. DDuke Energy
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. EENR
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. SSpectrum News+1

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. CColocation Scout+2

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. UUtility Dive+4

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. OOhio Capital Journal+1

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. AAltus Group+2

Data and rules

• US view of the Ampervia Powered-Land Map (early research)
• Powered-land deals dataset
• Powered land price per MW

Sources

JLLUUtility Dive+1KKJZZSECCColocation ScoutDCD+3SSpectrum NewsAAEP OhioDDuke EnergyDData Center KnowledgeOOhio Capital JournalAAZ LuminariaAAltus GroupSSRPWWFYIEENRTThe Energy MagDDatapranaFFlexentialPPowerHouse Data CentersTThe BlockDData Center FrontierPPrince William Times

Last checked 2026-10-13. Aggregates and anonymised requirements only; no candidate site, owner or municipality is identified.

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