NextEra, Brookfield plan $100 billion Kentucky data center campus

NextEra Energy, Brookfield and other companies are developing a $100 billion data center campus at a former uranium enrichment site in Paducah, Kentucky, the companies said on Wednesday.

Soaring US electricity demand is pushing companies ‌to invest ⁠heavily ⁠in artificial intelligence data centers and other technologies straining an aging US electric grid.

NextEra, the largest US utility, ​would deliver 2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power and 2.6 GW of battery storage capacity ​to support the data ⁠center, while ‌Brookfield would own and operate the ​1.8 ​GW campus, the companies said.


One gigawatt ⁠can power about 750,000 homes.

The campus would ​be located on the Department of ​Energy's Paducah Site, which was constructed in 1952 to produce enriched uranium but was later shuttered.

NextEra said the project fulfills the Trump administration's "Ratepayer Protection Pledge," which seeks to ‌ensure that companies building and using data centers pay above and beyond ​normal rates ​so that ⁠costs are not passed on to average households.

"The Department of Energy Paducah Site will be the seed ​of our plan to invest $100 billion in AI infrastructure," Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt said in a statement.

The project is expected to be completed by 2032.