The US Department of Energy has selected Brookfield to develop and operate a Paducah Site data center campus in Kentucky, and NextEra Energy to build and own the energy infrastructure intended to power the project. DOE described the effort as a redevelopment of portions of its Paducah Site into a data center campus paired with new energy infrastructure, with more than $100 billion in private investment tied to the plan.
The project centers on a planned 1.8 GW artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) campus at or near the Paducah location. As described by DOE, NextEra Energy plans to develop 2 GW of new grid-connected natural gas-fired generation, upgrade existing transmission infrastructure, and deploy up to 2.6 GW of battery energy storage to support the campus.
DOE said the combined generation and storage capacity would exceed the campus’s needs, with excess electricity delivered to the regional grid. That matters for data center planners because a 1.8 GW compute campus implies utility-scale interconnect, long-lead transmission work, and a power architecture where on-site and grid-facing operational constraints will drive everything from commissioning schedules to how much load can actually be brought online at each phase.
DOE tied the redevelopment to its American Energy Hubs initiative, and pointed to existing site attributes including transmission capacity, water infrastructure, fiber connectivity, and available land, while noting that environmental cleanup would continue alongside redevelopment.
DOE said the selection followed a Request for Offers issued in November 2025. In the planned structure, Big Rivers Electric Power Corporation would provide wholesale electric service, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative would provide retail electric service, and Paducah Power System would act as a community partner. The power service agreement remains subject to approval by the Kentucky Public Service Commission, and construction is expected to be completed in 2031.
DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Tim Walsh said, “We are intently focused on finding ways to put federal land back to productive use for the American people.”
Source: U.S. Department of Energy
