The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management has issued a Request for Offer (RFO) soliciting proposals to build and power AI data centers on the department’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant cleanup site in Kentucky. Applications are due by Jan. 30, 2026.
The request is part of the administration’s latest effort to leverage federal land to promote AI infrastructure and generation projects. The Paducah site is one of four singled out for this initiative. The other sites include the Oak Ridge Reservation, Savannah River Site and Idaho National Laboratory.
Companies chosen to enter into one or more long-term leasing agreements will build, operate and decommission each AI or energy generation infrastructure project. These include:
- Data center facilities with specialized IT equipment.
- Associated cooling facilities.
- Energy supply infrastructure.
- Transmission and storage infrastructure.
- Ancillary facilities and equipment needed to build, maintain, operate decommission and site restore/remediate site infrastructure.
Following development, these projects should provide rapid development of data center capacity to meet the commercial market demand and deliver adequate power generation to support data center operations.
The DOE will prioritize proposals that employ innovative solutions for merging energy generation and storage technologies with AI infrastructure. These components may include nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors or microreactors, enhanced geothermal systems and cold underground thermal energy storage.
Applicants selected for one or more projects on the site will be responsible for securing interconnection agreements for utilities. Proposals will be competitively evaluated based on technological readiness, financial viability and plans to adequately meet regulatory and permitting requirements.
Subsequently, the solicitation aligns with the administration’s efforts to promote AI dominance and innovation using federal land assets. Published executive orders directing these projects include “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” “Unleashing American Energy” and “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.”
Photo by President.az, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, from Wikimedia Commons
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