Release 2026-09-16

Name: US Data Center Directory, release 2026-09-16
Creator: Malachi.Energy
Published: 2026-09-16

Latest

Dataset version 2026-09-16 · Snapshot 2026-09-16 · Method v3 · Files never change

Maintained and reviewed by Malachi Rein, LEED AP BD+C · /data-centers/releases/latest/ points here

Frozen release 2026-09-16 of the Malachi.Energy US Data Center Directory: 54 tracked mega projects (109,198 MW planned), 1,771 OSM-verified facilities across 48 jurisdictions, and state estimates reconciled to 5,207. Files with SHA-256 checksums, data dictionary, method version 3, and changelog.

Files

Files in release 2026-09-16 with size, row count, license, and SHA-256
File	Rows	Size	License	SHA-256
mega-projects.csv Tracked US data center mega projects with the basis and confidence of every figure. One row per project, sorted by planned capacity.	54	20 KB	Attribution	eb44886446fa6eeb9a1c71c15661a0cc5b14ba95211d6876b8292434bcafb6be
mega-projects.json The same projects as mega-projects.csv in camelCase, with the project description, the source as an object, national totals split by basis, and the basis dictionary inline.		60 KB	Attribution	99e8a57d3b7946183f5901cff2a716d8d0a3b7c301585020ab7a4022018d1b9b
states.csv Verified and estimated facility counts plus mega project totals for every covered jurisdiction, sorted by verified count.	48	5 KB	Attribution	62bcadc83494d1a8541890b80297817e31f049e91945aa98aac8c68cf618f987
facilities.csv Every OSM-verified facility in the directory, all jurisdictions in one file. The live site serves this layer per state at /data-centers/<state>/facilities.csv.	1,771	251 KB	ODbL 1.0	38c6674ecd353fcec039be57eb83dff8d15ea9f0da30a75fa1ec392b37538294
README.md Human-readable description of this release: counts, files, data dictionary, method, changes, citation.		9 KB		f5dbf7c4e0960ef2271fce4a1eb397dde1942adc3373ecd183c1b3583fa4d02c
LICENSE.txt Which license covers which file.		1 KB		e3c065c7d93a9c2a745a12fee7e7f854a4121ca456147674dd1a13a47baf15c1
CITATION.bib BibTeX entry for this release.		1 KB		2476fa6d0e378bef366d28a2b7fb12ce7399ac88e460930db74c9b525aedf864
manifest.json and checksums.sha256 describe the files above; they are not hashed themselves.

Verify a download from the release directory:

curl -sO https://malachi.energy/data-centers/releases/2026-09-16/{mega-projects.csv,mega-projects.json,states.csv,facilities.csv,README.md,LICENSE.txt,CITATION.bib,checksums.sha256}
sha256sum -c checksums.sha256

Cite this release

Rein, Malachi (2026). US Data Center Directory, dataset version 2026-09-16. Malachi.Energy. https://malachi.energy/data-centers/releases/2026-09-16

@misc{malachienergy_data_centers_2026_09_16,
  author = {Rein, Malachi},
  title = {US Data Center Directory},
  howpublished = {Malachi.Energy},
  year = {2026},
  version = {2026-09-16},
  note = {Dataset version 2026-09-16. Facility layer ODbL 1.0 (OpenStreetMap contributors); compilation free with attribution.},
  url = {https://malachi.energy/data-centers/releases/2026-09-16}
}

Same entry as CITATION.bib in the release directory. Cite the release URL, not the hub, when the numbers must not move.

Changes in this version

Location basis for every mega project, re-researched site coordinates where a public source identifies the campus, and the first derived spatial facts: distance from each site-located project to the nearest 230 kV or higher transmission line.

Added location_basis to the mega project exports: site (campus footprint identified), address (public address, geocoded), city-centroid, or county-centroid. The JSON export also carries locationSource where the location comes from a different public source than the figures.
Re-researched campus coordinates. Projects upgraded to site or address carry a new coordinate and a dated location source; centroid projects keep their previous coordinate.
Added transmission proximity, derived in PostGIS from the HIFLD Electric Power Transmission Lines layer (data current to 2023-09-05) filtered to 230 kV and above: nearest line distance, voltage, and owner per project, and the count of site-located projects within 5 miles. The derived values live in derived-facts.json with their own measurement date and are not part of the frozen exports in this release.
Only site- and address-located projects count toward any distance fact; centroid coordinates can sit several miles from the parcel, so the prose states the site-located denominator and excludes the rest.
Methodology version 3.

Full changelog Previous release 2026-09-14

Method version 3

Every mega project carries a location basis (site, address, city centroid, or county centroid). Transmission proximity is derived as the geodesic distance from each project coordinate to the nearest HIFLD transmission line of 230 kV or higher, computed in PostGIS on geography and committed as JSON at refresh time; only site- and address-located projects count toward the within-5-miles fact, and every derived sentence names the layer vintage and its denominator. In effect since 2026-09-16.

The reconciliation table and investment split for the current live version are on the hub methodology block. README.md in the release directory carries the text as it stood at snapshot time.

Data dictionary

mega-projects.csv23 columns

Tracked US data center mega projects with the basis and confidence of every figure. One row per project, sorted by planned capacity.

id: Stable slug; also the last segment of the project page URL.
name: Campus or project name as the developer uses it.
developer: Company building or operating the campus.
location: City or county and state, as reported.
state: Two-letter USPS abbreviation.
capacity_mw: Planned power capacity in megawatts. Planned, not delivered.
capacity_basis: What the capacity figure rests on. One of: disclosed, filing, reported, estimated.
investment_usd_billions: Announced investment in USD billions.
investment_basis: What the investment figure measures. One of: campus-capex, first-phase-capex, bond-authorization, power-plant-capex, program-commitment, press-reported, analyst-estimate.
is_estimate: true when capacity is a Malachi.Energy estimate or investment is a third-party analyst estimate.
confidence: high when both figures come from the developer or a filing and the site has physical progress or firm contracts; medium when one figure is reported, estimated, or scoped differently than the campus; low when proposed without permits or capacity is an estimate.
included_in_aggregate: Whether the row counts toward the headline totals. Currently true for every project.
comparable_campus_investment: true when the investment basis is developer-stated campus or first-phase cost, the only bases that measure the same thing.
status: operational (first phase serves load), under-construction, announced, or proposed.
target_year: Developer-stated year for first or full operation. Empty when none is public.
lat: Latitude, WGS84. Precision varies by source; one-decimal values locate a county, not a site.
lon: Longitude, WGS84.
location_basis: How precisely the coordinate locates the campus. One of: site, address, city-centroid, county-centroid. Distance facts count only site and address rows.
source_label: Publisher of the primary public source for the two figures.
source_url: URL of that source.
source_date: Evidence date of the source, ISO, month precision allowed.
last_verified_at: Dataset version date. Every project is re-checked against its source at each refresh.
url: Project page on malachi.energy.

mega-projects.jsonJSON

The same projects as mega-projects.csv in camelCase, with the project description, the source as an object, national totals split by basis, and the basis dictionary inline.

states.csv10 columns

Verified and estimated facility counts plus mega project totals for every covered jurisdiction, sorted by verified count.

state: Jurisdiction name.
abbr: Two-letter USPS abbreviation.
osm_verified: Facilities tagged as data centers in OpenStreetMap with a mapped location in this jurisdiction.
estimated_total: Estimated facility count: Baxtel state count where Baxtel publishes one, otherwise osm_verified scaled so all jurisdictions sum to the Baxtel national total.
mega_project_count: Tracked mega projects in the jurisdiction.
mega_capacity_mw: Sum of planned capacity across those projects, megawatts.
mega_investment_usd_billions: Sum of announced investment across those projects, all bases mixed.
top_operator: Operator with the most OSM-verified facilities in the jurisdiction.
top_hub: City with the most OSM-verified facilities in the jurisdiction.
url: State page on malachi.energy.

facilities.csv12 columns

Every OSM-verified facility in the directory, all jurisdictions in one file. The live site serves this layer per state at /data-centers/<state>/facilities.csv.

name: Facility name from OpenStreetMap, empty when untagged.
operator: Operator from OpenStreetMap, empty when untagged.
city: City from the OSM address tags or reverse geocode.
state: Two-letter USPS abbreviation, assigned by point-in-polygon against Census boundaries.
address: Street address when tagged.
postcode: Postal code when tagged.
lat: Latitude, WGS84. Centroid for building outlines.
lon: Longitude, WGS84.
website: Website when tagged.
osm_type: node, way, or relation.
osm_id: OpenStreetMap element id.
osm_url: Link to the element on openstreetmap.org.

Licenses

Two layers, two licenses. facilities.csv and the verified-count columns of states.csv derive from OpenStreetMap contributors and carry the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. The mega project files and the state estimates are Malachi.Energy’s compilation, mega project tally and state estimates, free for personal, educational, and editorial use with attribution to Malachi.Energy. The split is spelled out file by file in LICENSE.txt.

Release 2026-09-16, snapshot 2026-09-16. Facility data from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Mega project data from public filings and announcements. Maintained by Malachi Rein for Malachi.Energy.