Brookfield Data Center, Kevil, Kentucky

The Department of Energy announced on July 29, 2026 that Brookfield will develop and run a data center campus at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kevil, McCracken County, Kentucky, with more than $100 billion of private money involved altogether. NextEra Energy will build 2 gigawatts of gas-fired power and 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage alongside it, which the companies say would make it the largest gas-fired power plant in Kentucky. The campus could reach up to 1.8 gigawatts of utility capacity and more than 1.2 gigawatts of computing capacity, with construction due to finish in 2031.

Big Rivers Electric, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative and Paducah Power System are also partners, and the companies say the developers will pay for the power and transmission so other customers are not billed for it. Governor Andy Beshear's office said he had not been briefed on the deal: "The Governor hasn't been briefed by any of the companies or agencies involved, and thus has a number of questions related to power, environmental impact, jobs and whether the project will pay the community its fair share of taxes," spokesperson Jack Richter said. The project's power contract still needs approval from the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

The plant, built in 1952 to enrich uranium and later fuel for power plants, closed in 2013 and is still owned and being cleaned up by the Department of Energy. It has been a Superfund site since 1994 because of decades of soil and water contamination, and cleanup of the roughly 3,550-acre site is expected to run until 2065 at a cost of about $17 billion. Paducah Mayor George Bray calls it the ideal site for a data center: "When we enriched uranium there, all the infrastructure around that power is still available," he said. "Plus, we've got you know tremendous water capacity out there."

Protect McCracken County, a residents' group that includes people living beside the site, wants an independent environmental review before building goes ahead. "Our biggest concern with all of these projects is that you're doing it on a Superfund site," said Erica Moore, who helped start the group. Byron Gary of the Kentucky Resources Council said permits for building on the contaminated land or drawing on the water beneath it must not be skipped: "There shouldn't be a justification to get around that and end up potentially dumping a lot more burden on a rural community that can't afford it."