Key facts
- The Data Center Atlas maps 2,475 U.S. data center sites, with projections for future locations.
- Planned power generation for data centers is 465 GW, compared to 59.5 GW currently operating.
- 88.3 GW of planned natural gas power generation is specifically for data centers, versus 38.0 GW for all non-fossil fuel technologies combined.
- 2,087 tracked sites have dated status history, with 1,594 facilities appearing in quarterly counts.
- Of tracked sites with basin data, 720 are located in areas with high or extremely high baseline water stress.
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have launched the Data Center Atlas, a new public tool designed to map the current distribution and project future locations of data centers across the United States. The tool aims to address the challenge of understanding the rapid growth of this critical infrastructure, which supports everything from web searches to artificial intelligence.
The atlas compiles open-source data to create a street-level map of existing data centers, overlaid with information on supporting infrastructure such as high-speed internet fiber, electricity, and water. This allows users to visualize where data centers are located and the resources they rely on.
A key feature of the Data Center Atlas is its projection component, which forecasts potential future locations for hyperscale data centers based on common siting preferences and infrastructure access. This capability is intended to help energy planners and researchers evaluate growth scenarios and their implications for energy, water, and land use.
The dataset reveals a significant expansion in the data center pipeline. Among sites that disclose capacity, the announced pipeline stands at 465 GW, which is approximately eight times the operating capacity of 59.5 GW. Furthermore, 130 GW of this pipeline is already under construction. The data also indicates a strong preference for natural gas power generation to support new data centers, with 88.3 GW of planned capacity versus 38.0 GW for all non-fossil fuel technologies combined. Notably, 90 of the 111 tracked gas plants are not yet built.
The atlas also highlights potential water resource strains. Of the 2,320 tracked sites with available basin data, 720 are situated in areas already rated as having high or extremely high baseline water stress by the WRI Aqueduct tool. The extent to which this impacts a facility depends on its cooling methods, information that most operators do not disclose.
The Data Center Atlas is part of the Department of Energy's Integrated Multisector, Multiscale Modeling (IM3) project and is available for public download, enabling further integration into modeling efforts by utilities, water suppliers, and other researchers.