The US Department of Energy – US DoE has gone on to identify 16 federal locations in terms of potential construction of data centers as well as associated energy resources. The agency, on April 3, went on to publish a request for information pertaining to stakeholders, including the grid operators, when it comes to the potential for projects that could be online in less than a couple of years from now.
According to Chris Wright, the secretary of energy, the global race for artificial intelligence dominance happens to be the next Manhattan Project, and under President Donald Trump’s leadership and, of course, the innovation in their labs, the US can and will win. He added that DOE is taking all the important steps to make sure to leverage their domestic resources so as to power the AI revolution.
It is worth mentioning that data centers as of today comprise almost 4.5% of total US electricity consumption. However, it can reach 12% by 2028, as per the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project that noted it in a recent report.
The RFI syncs with President Trump’s plan, which he announced in January 2025 to speed up the facilities development for co-located artificial intelligence data centers by using an energy emergency declaration. It happens to be just like a similar executive order that former President Biden signed in January 2025, which targeted the facilities development of AI data centers that were powered by clean energy. The RFI, however, does not in any way specify that clean energy will be used to power data centers.
Notably, the DOE also looks to assess the industry interest when it comes to operating and developing as well as maintaining AI facilities development on select DOE-owned or managed lands, in addition to the information on potential development approaches, operational models, technology solutions, and economic considerations as per the RFI. It also looks to have inputs from the grid operators, which go on to serve the DOE sites on opportunities and barriers that are associated with the present existing infrastructure and also potential co-location of data centers having new energy generation.
The RFI is looking for input on a range of subjects such as data center power needs, its timelines, and also approaches to co-locating energy sources with data centers or sources when it comes to surplus interconnection capacity.
As per the TOE, it wants the construction to start by the end of 2025 with the target of commencing the operations by the end of 2027. The RFI also includes potential hosting capacity of the identified sites as well as other details.
Flatiron campus of The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for instance, has enough land, power, and water, as well as broadband capability, to host a 100 MW data center, which could be started as soon as 2025, as per the RFI. Argonne National Laboratory can accommodate another 1000 MW AI data park in the future, with an early target to start operations by 2028.
