Brookfield and NextEra announce $100 billion AI data center campus at DOE's former Paducah (Kentucky) nuclear enrichment facility: 1.2+ GW compute capacity with dedicated 4.6 GW power generation (natural gas plants and battery storage)
A coalition led by Brookfield and NextEra Energy plans to build a $100 billion AI data center campus at the U.S. Department of Energy's Paducah Site in Western Kentucky, paired with up to 4.6 GW of dedicated new power generation. The project, announced July 29 by the Paducah American Energy Hub coalition, will be fully built by 2032 and support up to 1.8 GW of utility capacity and more than 1.2 GW of compute load. Partners include Brookfield, NextEra Energy, Big Rivers Electric Corporation (serving 22 counties), Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative (23,000 consumer-members across six counties), and Paducah Power System (serving 22,500 customers). The project is expected to create approximately 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent operations positions.
Under the arrangement, Brookfield will lease land from DOE and develop and operate the data center campus, while NextEra will own and operate dedicated generation resources—up to 2 GW of natural gas capacity and up to 2.6 GW of battery energy storage—to be added in stages. Big Rivers Electric will provide wholesale service, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative will handle retail delivery, and Paducah Power System will serve as community supporter. The power service agreement requires Kentucky Public Service Commission approval.
The 3,556-acre Paducah site, formerly home to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), is one of the country's most industrially developed federal parcels. Selected in October 1950 as the nation's second uranium enrichment facility, the plant began operations in 1952, producing enriched uranium for the nuclear weapons program and later for commercial power reactors. It remained the last government-owned uranium enrichment facility in the U.S. until commercial enrichment ceased in May 2013. Its facilities were formally transferred to DOE's Office of Environmental Management in October 2014, which has managed deactivation, decontamination, and cleanup since then.
The site already includes heavy transmission capacity, an on-site water treatment plant, fiber connectivity, roadway access, and extensive undeveloped land. In July 2025, DOE named Paducah, along with Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Reservation, and Savannah River Site, as the first four federal sites to invite private-sector partners for AI data center and generation projects. This selection stemmed from Trump administration executive orders directing federal agencies to leverage federal land for faster data center buildout, including orders addressing American leadership in AI, unleashing American energy, and accelerating federal data center permitting.
DOE issued the Paducah Request for Offers on November 4, 2025, seeking proposals under long-term leasing agreements funded solely by applicants, who would be responsible for building, operating, decommissioning each project, and securing utility interconnection agreements. The solicitation drew on DOE's authority under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the 1993 Hall Amendment, permitting the agency to lease unneeded property at federal facilities being closed or reconfigured. Notably, DOE explicitly invited proposals integrating "innovative energy generation and storage technologies with AI infrastructure, particularly nuclear technologies including small modular reactors." Responses were due January 30, 2026. The July 29 announcement identifies Brookfield and NextEra as the selected offerors, pairing the campus with natural gas and battery storage rather than on-site nuclear generation, though the coalition noted the transaction "is subject to negotiation and execution of definitive documentation."
"We are intently focused on finding ways to put federal land back to use for American taxpayers," said DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Tim Walsh. "That commitment is at the heart of our office's American Energy Hubs initiative. Our employees are working with urgency to transform legacy sites that played a key role in the prosperity and success of our nation, like Paducah, into hubs for energy and innovation that keep our nation secure and create new jobs and economic opportunities for the region."
The financing structure aligns with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a voluntary White House-brokered commitment first signed March 4 by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI. Under the pledge, hyperscalers and their utility and data-center developer partners commit to "build, bring, or buy" generation capacity their facilities need and fund required transmission and distribution upgrades, rather than passing costs to households and small businesses. The White House expanded the pledge on July 23 to include more than 200 organizations, including 23 Republican governors. NextEra Energy and Big Rivers Electric are among the signatories.
"The data center will bring its own power, pay for its own power infrastructure and create good-paying jobs for local workers—and in doing so, it will make the local communities stronger," said NextEra Energy Chairman, President, and CEO John Ketchum. "New jobs, new energy resources, a more reliable grid and not a dollar of added cost on an existing customer's electric bill."
Energy Secretary Chris Wright called the Paducah project a "crucial roadmap for future projects in the U.S. by revealing the ability to build world-leading infrastructure without passing costs on to surrounding communities." Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt described the site as "the seed of our plan to invest $100 billion in AI infrastructure" and said the project would ensure "innovation and affordability go hand in hand with creating high-quality jobs, attracting new investment, and strengthening the local economy."
Despite dedicated generation, wholesale and retail service arrangements among Big Rivers, Jackson Purchase, and the Brookfield campus require Kentucky Public Service Commission approval. The commission has authority over cost allocation and rate design for the state's regulated cooperatives. Big Rivers President and CEO Don Gulley emphasized member protection. "We believe this project will provide significant benefits to our members without compromising the affordability or reliability of their electricity," he said.
The announcement comes as federal lawmakers move to shield ratepayers from electricity-cost pressures of rapid data center growth. On July 21, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 52-0 to advance H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill from Representatives Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.). The bill would amend Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to require state utility commissions to apply a large-load standard directing data-center customers of 100 MW or more to recover the full incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade needed to serve them, along with financial assurances against stranded-cost exposure.
The Paducah announcement also follows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's June 18 show-cause orders directing all six U.S. RTOs and ISOs—including the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), where Big Rivers has been a member since 2010—to justify or reform tariff rules covering large loads. Kentucky is pursuing parallel action at the state level; the KPSC approved East Kentucky Power Cooperative's Data Center Power (DCP) tariff on October 30, 2025, establishing a new customer class for data-center loads of 15 MW or larger and requiring KPSC-approved special contracts for each project, with enhanced requirements—including dedicated power-supply plans—for projects exceeding 250 MW.