Aligned has commenced construction on a gigawatt-scale data center campus in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, marking a major expansion in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Aligned Data Centers has broken ground on Project Phoenix, a new 2GW data center campus in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Located within the 660-acre Shippingport Industrial Park in Beaver County, the site will comprise three facilities. The campus sits adjacent to the former Shippingport Power Station, which is being redeveloped into an advanced natural gas energy campus. Aligned confirmed that the data center will draw power from its own dedicated on-site source rather than the local electrical grid.
“Project Phoenix represents the future of responsible data center development,” said Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “The project is a legacy reimagined that transforms a dormant industrial site into a foundational asset for the local community. Beyond delivering critical infrastructure for our customers, this investment establishes a powerful new economic hub for Western Pennsylvania and creates long-term prosperity for local workers and the community.”
Shippingport lies approximately 30 miles (48.2km) northwest of Pittsburgh, near the state borders of West Virginia and Ohio. News of Aligned’s development plans within the Frontier Group of Companies-owned industrial park first surfaced in February.
Shippingport Mayor John Erickson emphasized the project’s impact on the region: “For decades, Shippingport has been defined by powering the country as the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy,” Erickson said. “Project Phoenix honors that legacy, opening a new chapter by taking a historic site and rebuilding it into a modern engine of innovation. By creating thousands of jobs and sustainable career pathways for the next generation, this is far more than an infrastructure project—it is a profound investment in our community’s future.”
The industrial park was previously home to the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant, a 2.49GW coal facility operated by FirstEnergy (later Energy Harbor Corp). The plant began operations in 1976 and ceased in 2019. Frontier Group acquired the site from Energy Harbor in 2022 and announced plans last year to develop a 2.7GW natural gas plant at the location, with supply provided by EQT Corporation and National Fuel Gas Company. In total, Frontier stated the site will ultimately deliver up to 3.6GW of behind-the-meter capacity.
Aligned currently operates campuses in Illinois, Texas, Utah, Arizona, and Northern Virginia, with additional sites under development in Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia. The company was sold last year by Macquarie Asset Management to a consortium comprising the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), MGX, and BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for $40bn.