Pa. faces data center boom as dozens of massive projects emerge
- Updated: Jul. 08, 2026, 6:58 a.m.
- | - Published: Jul. 08, 2026, 5:00 a.m.
HCI DP Land Acquisition LLC, which is the equitable owner of almost 250 acres of land on Wagner Avenue in South Hanover Township, has submitted two applications related to a proposed a data center complex in the Hershey area. Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com
By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com
It’s a modern-day gold rush.
Pennsylvania is not the first to experience the data center development boom. But it’s in full force in the Commonwealth now, with dozens of large-scale projects either being built, undergoing planning reviews by local governments or vying for choice locations.
That’s where our new data center tracker comes in.
The interactive map offers an up-to-date look at the largest data center projects being proposed, reviewed or constructed across Pennsylvania. The goal is to help readers understand what projects are very real right now, and what could be coming down the road.
One important note: The map does not, by design, include data centers that are already up and operating.
Our rationale there is that none of the current centers are of the size and scale of the true “hyperscale” projects Pennsylvania has begun to attract over the past two years.
This is, instead, meant to be a statewide check on the bigger projects that could be coming to an old power plant, mining site or farm field near you.
Data centers in Pennsylvania map
The interactive map and the database below offers an up-to-date look at the largest data center projects across Pennsylvania. The goal is to help readers understand what projects are very real, and what could be coming down the road. Have we missed one? Please click here to submit a new data center.
Click or tap on each dot to read more about the data center. The map is broken down as followed:
- Preliminary: A developer, landowner or public official has publicly disclosed interest in building a data center at a specific site but has yet to submit formal land development plans.
- Proposed: A developer has formally submitted land development plans or permit requests that are currently under review.
- Rejected: A developer has formally submitted land development plans that have been rejected through a review process. This could be appealed.
- Withdrawn: A developer has publicly disclosed interest in building a data center at a specific site but has since withdrawn interest.
- Construction: Land development plans have been approved, with construction either underway or likely to start soon.
Last updated: 12 p.m., July 7, 2026
Map: Megan Lavey-Heaton with Nick Falsone, Rudy Miller and Charles Thompson from PennLive and lehighvalleylive.com Source: Various media and municipality sources Get the data Created with Datawrapper
Data centers in Pennsylvania database
| Name | Developers | Location | Phase | Scope | Details | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aliquippa data center and natural gas plant | CB Tech Partners | Aliquippa, Beaver County | proposed | 86 acres, 496 megawatt capacity | The city made zoning changes and passed ordinances to accommodate a data center after a presentation from the developer in April 2025. They haven't heard back since. | Aliquippa City Administrator Samuel Gill; PA Aliquippa & Midland Land Sites |
| Allentown Data Center | Langan Engineering | Allentown, Lehigh County | preliminary | 5.7 acres | Developers want to revise previously approved plans for a warehouse to instead accommodate a 247,342-square-foot data center. A June 9 hearing on the revisions was postponed at the developer’s request. | lehighvalleylive.com |
| Allenwood Data Center | PNK Group | Union County | preliminary | Four buildings, up to 300 megawatts of power | A developer requested a zoning amendment to permit a project at this site; the township is currently drafting data center language for public hearing later this summer. | PennLive |
| Archbald I LLC Data Center Campuses | Archbald I LLC (Provident Data Centers) | Archbald, Lackawanna County | rejected | 400 acres, 2.7 million square feet, 18 buildings | Borough Council rejected plan in March; the developer has appealed council's decision in Lackawanna County Court | |
| AWS Keystone Trade Center Campus | Amazon Data Services | Falls Township, Bucks County at the site of a former U.S. Steel plant | construction | 2 million square feet, 10 data center buildings | Township supervisors approved the "digital infrastructure campus" in March 2025. The Amazon connection was revealed in June. With site work now underway, resident concerns are starting to increase. | Levittownnow.com |
Last updated: 12 p.m., July 7, 2026
Table: Megan Lavey-Heaton with Nick Falsone, Rudy Miller and Charles Thompson from PennLive and lehighvalleylive.com Source: Various media and municipality sources Get the data Created with Datawrapper
We start by looking at projects expected to use at least 100 megawatts of electricity upon full build-out.
These are most likely to be the AI-related, multi-building campuses that have raised concerns about water consumption, environmental impact and quality-of-life issues in other places around the nation.
You’ll see that some of the most preliminary projects on this list have not yet publicly released specific power ratings for their projects. In an effort to be as thorough as possible, we are listing them on the map now because of other preliminary indicators of project size.
Click on a given site, and you’ll find what we know about who’s behind the project, the municipality involved and a summary of the project’s current status.
Our intent is to keep a running tab on all of the data center projects listed here so you can too, with regular additions and deletions as developments dictate.
We’ll gladly take help.
If you know of a project that has escaped our notice, please let us know through the submission form available here.
We’ll research the information and, if we can corroborate what you’ve heard, we’ll add it to the map.
A constant stream of trucks traverse the Homer City construction site. Currently, more than 1,300 trade union workers are building the power plant. When data center construction begins, the double-shift workforce could swell to 10,000. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
Why is this happening?
Pennsylvania has about 80 small data centers operating around the state now, mostly enterprise centers serving a particular company, or co-location sites that manage data services for several firms.
The so-called hyperscale centers run by the tech giants for cloud computing and artificial intelligence purposes initially set up camp in places like Texas, the New York metro area, northern Virginia and California.
Over the last few years spin-off markets for the largest data centers started to grow in places like Georgia and Ohio.
Dan Diorio, vice president for state policy for the Leesburg, Va.-based Data Center Coalition, said part of the reason for that geographical spread is those states were first to offer big tax breaks.
Pennsylvania planted its flag in 2022, allowing developers committing to a $75 million threshold investment (or $100 million in counties of more than 250,000 population) to be exempt from the 6% state sales tax both for construction materials and the expensive computer equipment that fills the buildings.
Even then, Diorio said, data center developers still tended to build out in the markets where they already had a presence.
But now, as some of those markets have started to get saturated — in parts of Virginia, Diorio noted, it can take seven years for a project announced now to get the power commitments it needs — Pennsylvania and other markets have started to flash.
A data center developer recently added some context to Pennsylvania’s rise in an interview with the Cumberland County Planning Department.
“The state has a lot of available resources and with power, favorable legislation, water availability; all those things are drivers and attractions for data centers,” said Thomas Natelli Jr., vice president of Natelli Holdings in Gaithersburg, Md.
In addition, the legacy of Pennsylvania’s industrial past, including decommissioned power plants, shuttered steel mills and other brownfield sites “leaves a lot of great redevelopment (opportunities) of sites that are currently not doing anything for the economic growth of the state or the jurisdictions that they’re in,” he said.
Data center protestors gather on Commonwealth Ave. across from the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building. Pennsylvania has about 70 small data centers operating around the state now, mostly enterprise centers serving a particular company, or co-location sites that manage data services for several firms. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com
Too much, too fast?
The map PennLive and LehighValleyLive are unveiling Wednesday shows 65 new data center projects, most of them bigger than anything in existence in the Keystone State today.
Many will likely never get to the finish line.
But the surge in proposals has started brush fires of opposition from residents attuned to the worst horror stories from first-generation projects in other areas.
That opposition, fairly or not, has surged of late to the point where, according to one February survey, 68% of Pennsylvanians said they would not want a data center built in their community. Support for data centers lagged at just 20%.
Even top state government leaders, eager as recently as last year for Pennsylvania to get its share of the data center pie, are now modulating their stances on the fly:
- Gov. Josh Shapiro has called on the legislature to adopt new responsible development standards for data centers statewide. Under Shapiro’s plan, the lucrative sales tax exemptions and fast-tract permitting would be reserved for projects meeting those standards.
- For budget deficit reasons — or an election-year response to the boisterous grassroots pushback against data centers — there is a separate movement to simply scrap the sales tax break altogether. At this writing, the exemption’s elimination has received passing votes on different bills in the state House and Senate, though the Senate’s vote was part of a much larger tax cut package that was just another marker thrown down in the ongoing state budget talks.
- The state House has also passed multiple bills permitting local municipalities the right to declare pauses of verying lengths on data center applications in order to gain breathing space to draft or revise their own zoning and land development laws.
It’s not clear which, if any, of those bills might become part of the state’s still-evolving 2026-27 budget package.
None of that, however, is going to bring data center development here in Pennsylvania to a halt, as some of the very biggest projects in state history are already under construction, or are permitted to undergo their land development reviews under existing ordinances and state laws.
“The demand is ever increasing, and we see no end in sight in terms of what that digital data demand will be. More applications come out daily that look for that demand,” said Kraig Walsleben, a principal with Rogers Consulting Group in Germantown, Md.
“There are efficiencies that we’re also gaining every day. Chips are more efficient. They can store more in less space, those types of things,” Walsleben added.
“But they currently aren’t necessarily keeping up with demand (for computing power) and that’s what’s driving the need for more and more data centers.”
With so much hanging in the balance - for economic growth, fair use of resources, and residents’ quality of life - we hope this project helps you stay informed and engaged.
