The New York Times reports:

The Trump administration is repurposing large chunks of federal land to host enormous data centers and the power plants needed to run them as officials seek to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence and overcome growing local opposition to the facilities.

The Energy Department announced on Wednesday that it would redevelop parts of a retired Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Ky., to host a large new A.I. data center campus. The site is owned by the federal government and has been undergoing environmental cleanup for years.

The $100 billion project would include construction of 2 gigawatts of natural gas power connected to the local grid and 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage capacity. The Energy Department said the project would be privately funded through a partnership with NextEra Energy, one of the nation’s largest power companies; the investment firm Brookfield; and several local utilities. (One gigawatt of gas can power roughly 750,000 homes.)

“The U.S. government is leveraging its assets — like our federal lands — to add power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the A.I. race,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.

It’s the third time that the Trump administration has detailed plans to redevelop Cold War-era facilities into data centers. In March, the Energy Department announced that it would repurpose parts of a former nuclear enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, to host an enormous 10-gigawatt data center, mostly powered by natural gas and financed partly by Japan.

And this month, the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration said it would work with the engineering firm Amentum to explore a 1-gigawatt data center, potentially powered by gas and nuclear power, in Savannah River, S.C., at a federal complex once devoted to making plutonium for nuclear weapons.

President Trump has been a major supporter of artificial intelligence, which he has called essential to winning the technology race against China. In recent months, he has also tried to confront growing opposition in many communities to the proliferation of giant, energy-hungry data centers, which are driving up electricity demand.

A recent Gallup poll found that nearly half of Americans would “strongly oppose” a new data center in their neighborhood, with many citing concerns about noise, pollution and energy and water usage. In the first quarter of this year, at least 75 data center projects worth $130 billion were delayed or stopped by local opposition, according to Data Center Watch, a project by the A.I. research firm 10a Labs. [Continue reading…]