GREEN LIGHT SHINES FOR PROJECT BLUE
Last week, the Chamber of Southern Arizona’s Board of Directors showed support to data center developer Beale Infrastructure by voting to approve the company’s Project Blue initiative. A planned $3.6 billion data center campus is set to land around the Tucson region, beginning with its first proposed Primary Project site at the Southeast Employment and Logistics Center located in Pima County. Construction activity on this first of three planned development phases is slated for completion in 2027, although site details beyond the Primary Project have not yet been announced. The company will invest $100 million toward enhancing the region’s reclaimed water infrastructure, including plans for an 18-mile reclaimed waterline extension and a 30-acre aquifer recharge facility. As for these future facilities power needs, Beale Infrastructure will fund all Tucson Electric Power grid upgrades as needed. “With significant capital investment and tax revenues to both Pima County and the City of Tucson, this $3.6 billion project would be the single largest economic development project in Southern Arizona’s history,” said Chamber of Southern Arizona President and CEO Joe Snell. “In addition, the substantial infrastructure investment by Project Blue in energy and reclaimed water infrastructure improvements benefit each and every citizen here in the region. This project is a win-win for everyone.”
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TIME TO SHINE
Leading New Delhi-based renewable energy manufacturer SAEL has announced an over $954 million investment in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The move will allow the company to establish a new solar cell and module production facility, which is set to break ground before the end of the year. Once complete, the site will help boost domestic supply chain needs, as the country will soon begin requiring all government projects to use solar cells directly from local manufacturers beginning by mid-2026. This new policy aims to remove India’s reliance on China for imported solar cells, while increasing its 15-gigawatt (GW) domestic cell production capacity. The new facility will carry a 5GW annual capacity, in line with the company’s goal of launching 10 GW of new capacity through a more than $4 billion commitment to expanding its portfolio in India. SAEL currently has a solar power generation capacity of over 6.7 GW, which the company’s CEO Laxit Awla said will increase to up to 20 GW by 2030.
Photo courtesy of Frontier Group of Companies
REVIVED AND REPURPOSED
As part of the over $90 billion in new technology and energy projects announced last week in Pennsylvania, Frontier Group delivered news of its plans to establish a new natural gas-fired power generation plant. The company plans to convert the former 2.7-gigawatt (GW) Bruce Mansfield Power Plant into the Shippingport Power Station and introduce a new data center to be collocated at the site. The power station is expected to use about 800 million cubic feet per day of natural gas produced from the region’s Marcellus and Utica shales. In addition, the EQT Corporation will also step in as a natural gas supplier at the site. “The Bruce Mansfield Power Plant dutifully served Pennsylvania for 43 years,” said Frontier Group of Companies Founder and CEO David Franjoine of the coal-fired plant that was shut down in 2019. “With the support of Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Dave McCormick, we will transform this decommissioned coal facility into a modernized power facility that supports America’s goal of energy dominance and reinvigorates local communities with high-quality employment opportunities.” The estimated $6 billion project will supply power to its data center and other on-site activity while delivering over 1 GW of excess capacity to the nation’s largest power grid operator, PJM Interconnection. The project is anticipated to create over 15,000 construction jobs and 340 direct jobs once complete.
Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore
