Inside the Datacenter

All articles

37 articles, newest first

Data Center Basics

How a Data Center Gets Its Power: Utility Feeds, UPS, Generators, PDUs, and A/B Distribution

The first article in our Data Center Basics series follows electricity from the transmission line to the server: the substation and switchgear, the UPS and its batteries, the diesel generators and their permits, the PDUs and busway that carry power to the rack, and the A/B feeds and redundancy ratings that keep it all running. It covers how colocation and hyperscale operators build the same chain differently, and what happens when it breaks.

· 16 min read

State Guides

Every Data Center in Ohio: Operating, Under Construction, and Proposed

A running directory of every data center campus in Ohio as of October 2026: nine operating hyperscale campuses, thirteen under construction, fifteen proposals led by the 8-gigawatt PORTS-Pike campus at Piketon, ten withdrawn or rejected, and twenty-two colocation operators by metro, plus the AEP Ohio data center tariff, the sales tax exemption fight, and the 138 local moratoriums. Every row is sourced and the list is updated as projects move.

· 21 min read

AI Infrastructure

Where the Coal Plant Stood: AWS Files a Ten-Year, 2,200-Acre Data Center Plan at Homer City

Amazon's development arm has filed a master plan for the Homer City Energy Campus in Indiana County, Pennsylvania: dozens of two-story data centers on six sites straddling two townships, built in phases from December 2026 to 2036 and fed by a 4.5 GW gas plant rising where Pennsylvania's largest coal plant stood until 2023. More than 100 residents packed the county courthouse and the planning commission tabled it. On October 14 the county hired engineers to review it. Here is what the filing says, what the site has been through, and what has to happen before the first slab is poured.

· 9 min read

Industry Growth

Milwaukee Hits Pause: Council Votes 13-0 to Freeze New Data Centers for a Year

Milwaukee's Common Council has halted new data centers and most expansions for up to a year so the city can write zoning rules for them, something its code has never had. The fight started with a 19,000-square-foot server room proposed for an empty Walmart. The rules now being drafted would block anything over 60,000 square feet, in a city that planners say was never going to attract a hyperscale campus anyway.

· 9 min read

Industry Growth

Oregon Pulls the Permits: Kotek Orders a Nine-Month Freeze on Air and Water Approvals for New Data Centers

In a letter nobody announced, Gov. Tina Kotek told Oregon's environmental regulator to stop processing air and water pollution permits for new or expanded data centers until July 1, 2027. Without those permits, no hyperscale campus can be built on public or private land, which makes the order the closest thing to a statewide moratorium any governor has signed. Amazon, which runs more than a dozen hyperscale sites in Morrow and Umatilla counties, says it will cost thousands of jobs. The Legislature gets the problem in January.

· 9 min read

Power & Energy

Same Reactors, More Megawatts: Google and Amazon Pay Constellation to Squeeze 1.1 GW Out of PJM's Nuclear Fleet

In six days, Amazon and Google signed 20-year contracts that fund roughly 1,080 MW of nuclear uprates at seven Constellation sites in Maryland, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, backed by more than $7.3 billion of plant investment. Unlike most hyperscaler nuclear deals, these add electrons that do not exist today, arriving between 2028 and 2032 against a PJM shortfall of 6.8 GW that lands in 2028. Three days after the Google announcement, FERC threw out the PJM rule the deal was written to satisfy.

· 9 min read

State Guides

Every Data Center in Georgia: Operating, Under Construction, and Proposed

A running directory of every data center campus in Georgia as of September 2026: ten operating hyperscale campuses, thirteen under construction, forty-nine proposals led by OpenAI's 3.2-gigawatt Effingham County project, eleven withdrawn or rejected, and eighteen colocation operators by metro, plus the state's 10-gigawatt gas and battery build and the fifty-odd local moratoriums. Every row is sourced and the list is updated as projects move.

· 25 min read

State Guides

Every Data Center in Texas: Operating, Under Construction, and Proposed

A running directory of every data center campus in Texas as of September 2026: nineteen operating hyperscale and wholesale campuses, twenty-two under construction from Abilene to El Paso, thirty-five proposals, thirteen withdrawn or rejected, and forty colocation operators by metro, plus the governor's audit that has frozen new grid connections since August. Every row is sourced and the list is updated as projects move.

· 25 min read

State Guides

Every Data Center in Virginia: Operating, Under Construction, and Proposed

A running directory of every data center campus in Virginia as of September 2026: thirteen operating hyperscale and wholesale campuses with disclosed sizes, thirteen under construction from Louisa to Wytheville, twenty-nine proposals, thirteen withdrawn or rejected, and twenty-eight colocation and enterprise operators from Ashburn to Wise County. Every row is sourced and the list is updated as projects move.

· 21 min read

State Guides

Every Data Center in Arizona: Operating, Under Construction, and Proposed

A running directory of every data center in Arizona as of September 2026: fifteen operating hyperscale and wholesale campuses, six under construction, twenty-seven proposals from Buckeye to Page, five withdrawn or rejected, and twenty-seven colocation and enterprise sites. Every row is sourced and the list is updated as projects move.

· 16 min read

State Guides

Every Data Center in Wisconsin: Operating, Under Construction, and Proposed

A running directory of every data center in Wisconsin as of September 2026: one operating hyperscale campus, three under construction, six live proposals, seven withdrawn or blocked, and about twenty colocation and enterprise sites from Kenosha to Eau Claire. Every row is sourced and the list is updated as projects move.

· 10 min read

Explainers

The Life and Death of a Server

Servers used to be written off after three years. Now hyperscalers stretch them to six while AI chips age out in two. What actually happens when a machine leaves the rack, and where millions of tonnes of hardware go next.

· 5 min read

Cooling

The Second Life of Server Heat

Every watt a server draws leaves the building as heat, and Europe has spent a decade proving it can warm homes and swimming pools. So why does the EU's own data show just 1.8 percent of it gets reused?

· 5 min read

Power & Energy

Bring Your Own Power Plant: Data Centers Go Behind the Meter

Facing years-long interconnection queues, AI campuses are building their own gas turbines, fuel cells, and (eventually) reactors. Roughly 82 GW of behind-the-meter capacity has been announced since 2025, and regulators are scrambling to decide who pays for the grid everyone still leans on.

· 5 min read