- The U.S. Department of Energy included Oak Ridge National Laboratory, its largest multi-program science lab, on a list of possible sites for AI data centers.
- A 562-acre federal plot near the lab could provide a private AI company access to experts and TVA's grid.
- The Trump administration wants construction to begin on the AI data centers this year to finish by the end of 2027.
- The computers that train AI models could use 12% of all U.S. electricity by 2028, according to an Energy Department report.
The U.S. Department of Energy is asking tech companies to propose artificial intelligence data centers that could be located at 16 of its federal sites, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The department said input from AI developers would inform public-private partnerships with a goal to begin building data centers at federal sites this year that would start functioning by the end of 2027, according to a request for information issued April 3.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, in a visit to ORNL in February, called the race to develop AI technology "Manhattan Project 2." He visited just over a month before his agency included Oak Ridge, home of its largest multiprogram science lab, as a possible data center location.
Sites like ORNL are "uniquely positioned for rapid data center construction, including in-place energy infrastructure with the ability to fast-track permitting for new energy generation such as nuclear," the agency said.
Locating data centers that train powerful AI models at some of the Department of Energy's 17 laboratories, such as Idaho National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, could lower energy costs for a process that requires lots of electricity, according to the request.
Large-scale data centers rely on computers that use more than 100 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power around 60,000 homes. U.S. data center power demand could triple by 2028, using up to 12% of the nation's electricity, according to a Department of Energy report published in December.
ORNL has a plot suitable for AI data centers
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 23 to remove "certain existing AI policies and directives that act as barriers to American AI innovation" and has expressed a desire to locate data centers on land the federal government already owns for scientific research.
The Department of Energy owns a 562-acre plot suitable for AI development with access to transmission lines from the Tennessee Valley Authority grid and the lab's world-leading AI research, the request for information said.
The plot sits between the lab's main campus and TVA's Clinch River Nuclear Site, where the utility is developing small modular reactors that could one day power AI data centers with carbon-free energy.
TVA is developing a separate electricity rate class for data centers after several large tech companies, including Elon Musk's xAI, announced AI projects in the federal utility's service area.
"Before three or four years ago, it was rare to have a customer come on the system who was asking for more than 25 megawatts," TVA CEO Jeff Lyash told Knox News. "Now, we have businesses like data centers that can come on at 300 megawatts and decide three months from now they want to grow 300 megawatts more."
The $6 billion xAI supercomputing project in South Memphis doubled its energy demand request from Memphis Light, Gas & Water from 150 megawatts to 300 megawatts earlier this year.
TVA approved a plan in November to provide the project with 150 megawatts through the Memphis utility, its largest customer.
The TVA Board of Directors no longer has a quorum needed to conduct business after Trump directed the terminations of two board members without publicly stating the reason why. Knox News has not received responses to several requests for comment from White House officials.
U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee criticized the board before the terminations for "paralysis by analysis" on new nuclear development. The pair said the terminations would allow the Senate to confirm new board members selected by Trump with a focus on spurring nuclear energy.
Are you a current or former federal employee or contractor with a story to tell? ContactDaniel Dassow, a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy, atdaniel.dassow@knoxnews.comor on Signal @danieldassow.24.
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