What Do Owners Ask After “How Much Power?”
- How much land does a data center need?
- About 20–50 acres for a single large building and 100–1,000+ acres for a multi-phase hyperscale campus. Contiguous tracts with no roads or easements cutting through them are worth far more than the same acreage in pieces.
- How much does powered land cost per acre?
- In secondary markets powered land typically prices in the low-to-mid six figures per acre, while Northern Virginia powered land trades at $6 million+ per acre (versus about $4 million for entitled land without power). Power is what moves the number: ground worth about $10,000 an acre without a credible power path can reach six figures per acre once capacity and the utility relationship are secured.
- How long does it take to get power to a data center site?
- About 4 years on average for a new large-load grid connection in 2026, versus 12–18 months before 2022. Constrained markets such as Northern Virginia run up to ~7 years for 100 MW, while sites with an existing substation or in emerging markets can be energized in 12–24 months.
- What does a data center cost per MW to build?
- Roughly $10 million to $15 million per MW of critical IT load all-in for most U.S. projects in 2026, and more for liquid-cooled AI halls. JLL puts the 2026 global average at $11.3 million per MW, and Cushman & Wakefield's August 2026 cost guide shows per-MW costs up about 21% since late 2024.
- Is Tennessee a good place to build a data center?
- Yes — TVA power, water, central geography and a deep stock of industrial land make Tennessee one of the strongest Southeast markets, led by Memphis. TVA's board approved a dedicated data center rate on August 20, 2026 (about a 10% average increase phased in over three years, plus upfront capacity-commitment charges), which makes capacity that is already contracted and energized more valuable.
- What does a real powered site look like?
- A ±49-acre North Memphis campus with 4.5 MW contracted today, a path to 15 MW on Substation 1 and up to 35 MW across two on-site substations (subject to MLGW/TVA confirmation). Data center use is permitted by right, and it is offered as an unpriced call for offers.
Figures as of October 2026. Sources: JLL 2026 forecast via Datacentres.com; Cushman & Wakefield 2026 Data Center Development Cost Guide; Avison Young via TechTarget (Oct 9, 2026); JLL time-to-power data via ConstructionOwners (Jul 2026); TVA data center rate (Aug 2026). Ranges vary by market, design and timing — verify for a specific site.
How Much Power Does a Data Center Need?
Data center capacity is measured not in square feet but in megawatts of critical IT load — the power available to the computing equipment. Understanding that number, and how a site gets it, is the key to understanding the whole asset class.
What Is a Megawatt?
A megawatt (MW) is one million watts, or 1,000 kilowatts. Power measures the rate of energy use at a moment in time. A 100 MW data center can draw up to 100 million watts continuously when fully loaded. A gigawatt (GW) is 1,000 MW — city-scale power, and the frontier of the largest AI campuses.
How Much Power Does Each Type of Data Center Need?
Short answer: 10–50 MW for colocation and enterprise facilities, 100 MW per hyperscale building or phase, and 500 MW to 1 GW+ for AI campuses. AI racks draw 40–130 kW each, versus 5–10 kW for a traditional rack.
| Capacity | Scale | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| 10 MW | Small / colo | A modest colocation facility or one data hall. |
| 50 MW | Mid-size | A solid single-building deployment; a meaningful new utility load. |
| 100 MW | Hyperscale building/phase | Tens of thousands of homes' worth of power. |
| 500 MW | Major campus | Requires dedicated transmission and substation infrastructure. |
| 1 GW | Mega-campus | City-scale load; often needs new generation, not just new wires. |
Why Do AI Data Centers Need So Much More Power?
Short answer: An AI rack draws 40–130 kW or more, roughly 10 times a conventional 5–10 kW rack. Multiply that across thousands of racks and one AI campus needs 100 MW to over 1 GW.
A conventional rack ran 5–10 kW. A rack packed with AI accelerators can draw 40–130 kW or more. Multiply that across thousands of racks and a single AI campus can demand 100 MW to over 1 GW. For the first time in decades, US electricity demand growth is being driven materially by a single new category of customer — which is why power, not land, has become the binding constraint. See Powered Land for Data Centers.
How Long Does It Take to Get Grid Power to a Data Center?
Short answer: About 4 years on average for a new large-load grid connection in 2026, versus 12–18 months before 2022. Constrained markets such as Northern Virginia run up to ~7 years for 100 MW, while sites with an existing substation or in emerging markets can be energized in 12–24 months.
Power reaches a campus through high-voltage transmission (commonly 115, 138, 230, 345, or 500 kV) stepped down at a substation. To connect large new load, a project enters the utility's interconnection queue and undergoes studies that determine upgrades and cost allocation — a process now badly congested, with multi-year waits common. This is why sites with existing substation and transmission capacity, like brownfields and retired coal plants, are so valuable.
Can a Data Center Generate Its Own Power?
Short answer: Yes — where a gas pipeline is nearby, on-site turbines or engines can bring large blocks of power online years sooner than a congested grid queue. Nuclear co-location and small modular reactors are coming, but mostly as a next-decade option.
Because the grid is slow, developers increasingly build power on-site. On-site natural gas turbines can bring large blocks online quickly where pipelines exist, and nuclear — co-location and future small modular reactors (SMRs) — is emerging for large, firm, carbon-free power. At gigawatt scale, a campus is an energy project as much as a real estate project: the power is built, not merely found.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much power does a data center use?
What is a megawatt?
How many homes does a megawatt power?
What is an interconnection queue and why is it backed up?
Can data centers be powered by natural gas or nuclear?
Need to know if your site can deliver the megawatts?
Carson Jones can help you read the utility, transmission, and substation picture for a parcel. Get a confidential site read or visit Passive Investments.
Educational information only — not legal, tax, engineering, or investment advice.
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Carson Jones
Carson Jones is the host of Carson's Corner: Commercial Real Estate, author of The Red Flag Playbook, a licensed commercial real estate advisor and business broker, and the founder of Passive Investments. With 18 years of experience as an entrepreneur and 12 years specializing in passive investing, Carson works with high-net-worth individuals, family offices, business owners, and sophisticated investors as a broker and principal.
Carson holds a BBA in Finance from Baylor University and his Tennessee commercial real estate license (#382989). He actively pursues acquisition and equity opportunities across the United States and abroad through a worldwide network of qualified buyers, family offices, institutional investors, and top-tier developers.
Pricing disclaimer. The $300,000–$600,000 per-acre figures used on this page are an illustrative pricing range, not a guaranteed valuation. Actual pricing depends heavily on confirmed power capacity, delivery timelines, utility costs, location, and development readiness.