Summary
- AWS has confirmed discussions over a potential data-centre development at Homer City in Pennsylvania.
- The former coal-generation site is being redeveloped around up to 4.5GW of new natural-gas generation.
- No definitive AWS agreement has been signed, leaving the project at an evaluation stage rather than committed construction.
Amazon Web Services is evaluating a potential data-centre development at Homer City in Pennsylvania, where developers are building up to 4.5GW of natural-gas generation on the site of a retired coal-power station.
Amazon confirmed that it has held discussions with Homer City Redevelopment as part of its wider search for Pennsylvania sites but said there is no definitive agreement for the project.
Homer City covers more than 3,200 acres roughly 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. The redevelopment programme is centred on new gas-fired generation using seven GE Vernova 7HA.02 turbines, alongside existing grid infrastructure connected to PJM and New York’s NYISO system.
The site previously hosted a roughly 2GW coal-fired power station, which operated from 1969 until 2023. Reusing a former generation site gives the redevelopment access to infrastructure that would be difficult to reproduce quickly on greenfield land, including transmission connections, substations, water infrastructure, and an established industrial footprint.
Homer City Redevelopment has previously put the investment in power infrastructure and site readiness above $10bn. Current project reporting indicates the new generation could reach operation around 2028.
Power sites become data-centre sites
AWS has not disclosed how much capacity it could develop at Homer City, whether the data centre would take power directly from the new plant, or what commercial structure would link the two developments. Those details are fundamental before the project can be described as a committed gas-powered AWS campus.
The discussions nevertheless fit a wider pattern in which data-centre developers are moving closer to generation. DataCentral recently reported that private and behind-the-meter power programmes are reaching gigawatt scale as developers try to bring electricity online faster than conventional utility connections allow.
Former power stations can be particularly attractive. They combine land, transmission infrastructure, industrial zoning, and grid experience in locations already accustomed to large energy flows. Repurposing them for digital infrastructure can therefore shorten parts of the site-development process, although it does not remove permitting, environmental, water, and construction requirements.
Homer City also illustrates how the economics of retired fossil-fuel sites are being recast by AI demand. The original coal plant closed after more than five decades of operation. The redevelopment now proposes substantially larger generating capacity, with data centres among the potential loads that could justify the investment.
For hyperscalers, co-location with generation can offer greater certainty around timing and capacity. It also creates concentration risk: the data centre, fuel supply, generation plant, electrical network, and cooling infrastructure become parts of a tightly coupled system whose resilience has to be engineered as a whole.
The emissions consequences are equally material. New gas generation may solve a speed-to-power problem but adds long-lived combustion assets at the same time that large technology groups are maintaining carbon-reduction commitments. Any eventual AWS agreement would therefore draw scrutiny not just for capacity but for how power is contracted and accounted for.
Amazon has committed to invest at least $20bn in data-centre infrastructure in Pennsylvania and is evaluating multiple sites. Homer City gives it access to a particularly large energy proposition, but the absence of a definitive agreement means the immediate development remains the power project itself rather than an AWS campus.
