Repowering America’s Digital Future: Quantifying the Hyperscale Opportunity on Legacy Power & Industrial Sites
By Sean T. Long
Co-Founder & Chief
August 30, 2025
America is navigating two massive infrastructure transitions at the same time. On one hand, the country is extending beyond its design life or retiring its fossil-fuel power generation fleet at a record pace. On the other hand, demand for hyperscale data centers, driven by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital services, is surging to unprecedented levels. Couple this with supply constraints, strained political environment and a transition from a system when retail customers effectively subsidize commercial and industrial customers to a system structured such that at least data center players must fully carry their own power infrastructure costs. Where these trends meet lies one of the most significant opportunities in infrastructure today: redeveloping retired power generation and industrial facilities into hyperscale data center campuses.
The Scale of Legacy Infrastructure and Power Demand
The numbers make the case clear. Since 2000, more than 780 coal-fired units have been retired across the United States, representing over 100 gigawatts of capacity through 2020. Another 69 gigawatts are projected to retire by 2030. Although, we expect that this number will likely not materialize given the reduction of additional new renewable generation is likely reduced given the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill enacted on July 4, 2025.
At the same time, there are between 450,000 and 500,000 brownfield sites scattered across the country — previously developed industrial or commercial parcels that are underutilized and often strategically located near transmission and water infrastructure. Beyond coal, the U.S. Department of Energy has identified that existing and retired nuclear and coal plant sites could host as much as 269 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity. This indicates the sheer scale of redevelopment potential that exists across the country’s legacy industrial footprint.
This capacity perfectly aligns with the growth trajectory of hyperscale demand. Deloitte projects that U.S. data center power requirements could reach 123 gigawatts by 2035, compared to just 4 gigawatts in 2024. Wood Mackenzie, in parallel, has tracked more than 134 gigawatts of proposed U.S. data center developments, with utilities already committing to serve 64 gigawatts of that capacity. Together, this represents a surge that could add more than 12 percent to the country’s total electricity demand over the next decade. In other words, the stranded power plant sites of yesterday could represent exactly the kind of infrastructure-ready locations needed to serve the digital economy of tomorrow.
Why Legacy Generation & Industrial Sites Are Strategic for Hyperscale
The strategic advantages of redeveloping these sites are compelling. Retired power plants were purpose-built with grid connections in mind. Many sit at the intersection of high-voltage substations and major transmission corridors, giving developers a rare head start in interconnection. The sites are often vast, spanning hundreds of acres, and already zoned for industrial use, eliminating the protracted battles that plague many greenfield developments. They were also historically designed with cooling and water infrastructure in place, whether through intake systems, ponds, or river access, making them well-suited for data center thermal management solutions. Just as importantly, they are often located in communities that have suffered economic decline following plant retirements, giving redevelopment the potential to restore tax bases, generate construction employment, generate indirect economic benefits, and catalyze new investment.
The Risks and Pitfalls
Yet while the advantages are real, managing associated risks are just as significant. Environmental liabilities weigh heavily on these locations. Coal ash ponds, asbestos, PCBs, and groundwater contamination all require extensive remediation, often costing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Grid proximity does not guarantee available power capacity, particularly in congested systems such as PJM, MISO, and CAISO, where interconnection queues are backed up for years. Water rights that once underpinned thermal power operations may now be politically sensitive or environmentally constrained, particularly in drought-prone regions. Communities may welcome redevelopment but remain skeptical when data centers bring fewer power construction jobs than the industrial facilities they replace. Finally, regulatory processes, floodplain issues, and seismic risks can extend timelines, undermining the speed-to-market advantage.
The PowerTransitions® Solution
This is where PowerTransitions enters the picture as a strategic enabler. PowerTransitions was built to transform legacy assets into near-term “powered land” and construction-ready hyperscale campuses. The company systematically addresses environmental liabilities by managing cleanup, abatement, demolition, and compliance with federal and state environmental standards. It resolves grid capacity challenges not by waiting in line, but by adding or repowering on-site or nearby generation, whether through natural gas plants, renewable generation, and/or battery storage systems. In doing so, PowerTransitions ensures dedicated and reliable power supply that utilities are requiring to support locating hyperscale data centers in their territories. The company also conducts comprehensive due diligence, including Phase I and II environmental assessments, zoning reviews, and water rights analyses, to guarantee that sites are bankable and ready for construction. On the permitting side, PowerTransitions works closely with local governments to secure industrial zoning, fast-track approvals, and negotiate community benefits arrangements, aligning projects with local needs and minimizing opposition. Water and cooling infrastructure is carefully evaluated.
What Makes PowerTransitions Unique
What makes PowerTransitions truly unique is its integrated model. Traditional real estate developers focus on land assembly and zoning. Utilities and energy developers focus on power supply. Environmental firms manage cleanup. But PowerTransitions unites all of these capabilities into a single platform that can take a complex site and turn it into a shovel-ready, power-secure, community-supported hyperscale campus. That means hyperscale developers and investors no longer have to bear the burden of untangling environmental liabilities, navigating interconnection bottlenecks, or managing local politics. Instead, they gain access to sites where key risks have been mitigated, and value unlocked. In effect, PowerTransitions is building a new asset class: construction-ready, energy-integrated campuses purpose-built for hyperscale data centers.
The Broader Picture
For developers and investors, the benefits of this model are substantial. Time-to-market is accelerated, as projects begin on sites already vetted, remediation well understood and planned, and other key risks mitigated. Investment risk is reduced, thanks to proactive remediation, permitting, and grid strategies. Resiliency is improved by integrating on-site or adjacent power generation and storage, while sustainability goals are strengthened by reusing legacy infrastructure rather than expanding into untouched land. Communities, in turn, benefit from remediated property, renewed economic vitality and reimagined use of industrial land that might otherwise become or remain idle.
The broader picture is one of alignment. The United States is retiring over 100 gigawatts of coal capacity and holds hundreds of thousands of brownfield sites. At the same time, data center demand is climbing toward 123 gigawatts by 2035. The scale of redevelopment potential is measured in the hundreds of gigawatts — far exceeding projected hyperscale demand. What this means is clear: America already has the land, the infrastructure, and the opportunity to meet the digital economy’s growth without starting from scratch. The challenge is navigating the risks and complexities that come with legacy sites.
Conclusion
That is precisely where PowerTransitions delivers value. By transforming liabilities into opportunities and legacy assets into strategic campuses, the company bridges the gap between America’s industrial past and its digital future. The pathway from thermal to cloud is not only possible — it is happening, and it represents one of the most compelling infrastructure stories of our time.
Final thought: The opportunity to repower America’s industrial heartland for the digital age is real, vast, and urgent. The only question is whether developers, investors, and policymakers will move quickly enough to seize it. With PowerTransitions, the blueprint for turning that opportunity into reality is already in place — and no one else in the market is solving the full equation the way PowerTransitions does.