AWS Santa Clara Mission College data center, Santa Clara, California

Amazon Web Services is building a data center campus on Mission College Boulevard in Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, California, on land it bought for about $100 million in December 2019. Plans filed with the California Energy Commission call for two three story buildings totaling 490,000 square feet, 43 diesel backup generators, and a new substation to be built and run by the city's own utility, Silicon Valley Power.

The utility could not supply enough power over its existing lines, so in July 2024 the Santa Clara City Council voted 6-0 for a 15-year deal in which the city buys power from Bloom Energy fuel cells and resells it to Amazon, letting the company add power faster for a second building. Amazon pays all the costs, at about 50 percent above the utility's usual industrial rate, with renewable energy credits used to offset the gas-fired power.

"We have been working very hard to try to get additional transmission capacity and grow the system," the utility's chief electric officer, Manuel Pineda, told the council, adding that at least four other customers wanted a similar deal.

Santa Clara has 58 data centers, the most of any city on the West Coast, is spending $459 million to double its power grid, and collects an estimated $29.5 million a year from them, a September 2026 report found. Most of the city's data centers use recycled water, but residents have complained about noise, height and appearance since one went up on Memorex Drive.

The Santa Clara City Council, which owns Silicon Valley Power, decides on the utility's power deals and rates.