{"id":670275,"date":"2026-03-21T00:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/670275\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T00:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:16:18","slug":"doe-unveils-10-gigawatt-ohio-data-center-gas-powered-energy-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/670275\/","title":{"rendered":"DOE unveils 10-gigawatt Ohio data center, gas-powered energy plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

PIKETON, Ohio (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a public-private partnership to develop a major data center<\/a> with its own power supply on the site of a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio, as it pushes commercial development of artificial intelligence technology. <\/p>\n

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County \u2014 now being branded as the \u201cPORTS Technology Campus\u201d \u2014 is expected to include a 10-gigawatt data center and up to 10 gigawatts of new power generation, including 9.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation, according to DOE.<\/p>\n

The plant was on a list of 16 federal sites<\/a> released last year as locations where the department could invite technology companies to build data management and storage capacity. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump called tech companies<\/a> to the White House and asked them to commit to developing their own power generation alongside the electricity-intensive sites. The Ohio project includes both on-site and grid-connected power generation, along with billions of dollars in transmission upgrades, officials said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant, is visible as the U.S. Department of Energy announces a new data center at the site Friday, March 20, 2026, in Piketon, Ohio. (AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel)<\/p>\n

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a decommissioned uranium enrichment plant, is visible as the U.S. Department of Energy announces a new data center at the site Friday, March 20, 2026, in Piketon, Ohio. (AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel)<\/p>\n

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Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Piketon on Friday for the project announcement, along with officials from SoftBank Group<\/a>, a Japanese investment management company, and its affiliate SB Energy. <\/p>\n

DOE said SoftBank, through SB Energy, is partnering with AEP Ohio to build the power generation and transmission infrastructure, including a $4.2 billion investment in grid upgrades and new transmission lines that the companies say will not raise customer rates.<\/p>\n

DOE said the project is part of the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement<\/a> announced by Trump last year. The department said the initiative includes $33.3 billion in Japanese funding tied to the natural gas generation component.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Masayoshi<\/p>\n

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks during an announcement for a new data center Friday, March 20, 2026, in Piketon, Ohio. (AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel)<\/p>\n

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks during an announcement for a new data center Friday, March 20, 2026, in Piketon, Ohio. (AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel)<\/p>\n

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In a statement, Wright said the project would \u201cadd power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the AI race,\u201d while Lutnick described it as part of a broader effort to \u201creindustrialize the country\u201d through large-scale energy and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

The visit comes days after a group of rural Ohio residents filed a petition to put a constitutional ban on mega data centers on the statewide ballot \u2014 joining a growing chorus of opponents<\/a> concerned about the environmental, financial and societal costs of AI. <\/p>\n

Ohio ranks fifth in the nation for data centers, with about 200 sites, according to the Office of the Ohio Consumers\u2019 Counsel, which represents utility customers. That includes projects by Google<\/a>, Amazon Web Services<\/a> and Meta<\/a>. <\/p>\n

SoftBank is collaborating with OpenAI and Oracle on Stargate, an artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative aimed at building out large-scale U.S. data center capacity to support AI, with a potential $500 billion in investment. Last fall, the three companies said a site in the Midwest would be part of their partnership.<\/p>\n

DOE said construction on the Portsmouth project is expected to begin this year and that it will create thousands of jobs while supporting research in areas such as fusion energy, quantum computing and national security applications. Officials also said excess power capacity generated at the site would be fed back into the grid to help lower electricity costs in the region.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Carr Smyth reported from Columbus. AP journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston. The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PIKETON, Ohio (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a public-private partnership to develop a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":670276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[7060,6229,156296,738,64,42404,66465,69,98171,10102,57,17785,59,65,7062,1574,1573,55405,23824,755,158,135313,61,67,132,68,93],"class_list":["post-670275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alphabet","tag-amazon-com","tag-american-electric-power-co","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-christopher-wright","tag-data-management-and-storage","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-burgum","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-howard-lutnick","tag-inc","tag-information-technology","tag-meta-platforms","tag-oh-state-wire","tag-ohio","tag-openai-inc","tag-softbank-corp","tag-softbank-group-corp","tag-technology","tag-u-s-department-of-energy","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116264290835357787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}