Energy Secretary Chris Wright fleshed out Thursday his agency’s plan to build data centers on federal land, saying he envisions co-locating the facilities with power sources.
The plan is “you’re going to co-locate power. You’re going to build a data center, and you’re going to build the power and resources to power it,” he told reporters at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
His comments followed the Department of Energy’s announcement that it is eyeing new data centers on federal lands — including at multiple national lab locations — to support a boom in artificial intelligence.
DOE released a request for information Thursday, identifying 16 sites that potentially could host AI infrastructure. The agency said it was seeking input from companies and the public on how to develop the sites and form public-private partnerships to meet surging electricity demand in the coming years.
At NREL, Wright said private data companies would provide capital under the plan and that there could be “some combination of lease payments” for companies to use federal land.
There “may be some allocation of computing power from that data center to help the national lab where it’s located,” Wright said. “It’s a commercial arrangement, using our land to get some value out of it with a private company that both helps the lab and helps the country by getting more data centers built.”
The department said it is looking to enable construction of AI infrastructure by the end of 2025 and start operations at data center sites by the end of 2027.
The DOE sites identified for development are Idaho National Laboratory; the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant; Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant; Argonne National Laboratory; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; National Energy Technology Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratories; Savannah River Site; Pantex Plant; and the Kansas City National Security Campus.
The plan aims to address one of the largest challenges facing the energy sector: how to find enough electricity to support a technology boom and ensure the United States stays competitive with China in developing AI technologies. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, data centers could consume roughly 12 percent of U.S. electricity by 2028.
According to the RFI text, “DOE sites offer potential advantages such as access to or the potential to build power infrastructure, secure locations and opportunities for technological collaboration with DOE research facilities.”
The 16 sites are not the only sites under consideration and no decisions have been made about “changes to land use” at the locations, according to the RFI. The notice included detailed maps for potential data centers and indicated the Trump administration is eyeing long-term ground leases or easements for construction.
The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order titled “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” It also echoes a plan issued by the Biden administration in January to construct AI infrastructure on federal lands, although that plan was focused on a clean energy build-out.
The new RFI doesn’t outline in detail which power sources might fuel data centers on federal land but said new infrastructure could “accelerate deployment of key technologies like nuclear, geothermal, and energy storage.” DOE said it was looking to “fast track permitting” for technologies like advanced nuclear.
Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, said the group supported the plan.
“In fact this concept was included in the recommendations we submitted last month to [the Office of Science and Technology Policy],” Levi said in a statement.
Looming job cuts
Wright’s presence at NREL is noteworthy as Trump targeted the lab during his first term, repeatedly proposing that Congress slash its budget.
The trip also comes as lists have been circulating at DOE and on Capitol Hill outlining potential deep cuts to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office, which funds the lab. And on Monday, DOE staffers were directed to prepare for a possible “restructuring” and given the option to leave voluntarily before mandated job cuts take effect.
When asked about the status of job cuts, Wright said it is “an ongoing process.”
“We are doing a very detailed organization, bottom up in each department in each area. How can we get better and smarter at what we’re doing?” he said. “So that is an ongoing process, We are midstream on that, but frankly, it would be downright irresponsible if we weren’t doing this.”
Congressional Democrats have railed against DOE’s potential cuts, including one proposal to claw back funding from hydrogen hubs in Democratic-led states while keeping those in Republican-led states. On Thursday, several House Democrats sent a letter to DOE acting Inspector General Sarah Nelson calling for an investigation of delays and cancellations of DOE contracts and funding.
“It appears that some projects previously deemed worthy of funding are being cancelled without adequate justification, and in some cases, with no clear rationale other than administrative convenience,” the letter said.
