Inyokern Data Center, Inyokern, California

The RB Inyokern Data Center, a 99-megawatt data center proposed by R&L Capital near U.S. Highway 395 and State Route 178 in Inyokern, an unincorporated community in Kern County, California, is under review by the California Energy Commission and facing opposition over the valley's overdrawn groundwater. In August 2026 the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority said it had warned the commission about adding significant new groundwater demand to a closed, critically overdrafted basin.

R&L Capital plans a single-story, 238,000-square-foot building with six data halls and an on-site substation on a 50-acre site between U.S. 395 and North Brown Road. The first phase would offer 60MW, and construction could start in April 2027 for a November 2028 opening. Its filing with the Energy Commission lists 40 diesel generators of 3 MW each for up to 99 MW of emergency backup power, and the project would use both liquid and air cooling. News of the project surfaced in May 2026, and a Change.org petition against it had more than 1,140 signatures by early July.

Water is the central worry. The Indian Wells Valley basin's state-approved sustainable yield is 7,650 acre-feet a year, but reported pumping has run near 21,000 acre-feet, and the basin is in adjudication. The Groundwater Authority's board voted unanimously to tell the commission that if the project's demand exceeds the Inyokern Community Services District's allocation, the developer would be expected to help pay for imported water, and that any project wells would owe the authority's replenishment and extraction fees. "Our board acted unanimously on this because protecting the basin is core to what SGMA charges us to do," said chair Scott Hayman.

The Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District, the city of Ridgecrest, the China Lake naval base and the Sierra Sands Unified School District have sent the commission letters of opposition, and the Inyokern Airport has asked for an aviation impact analysis. On the other side, the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, the Kern, Inyo and Mono Counties building trades council and the Kern Economic Development Corporation have endorsed the project, according to its website. On July 20 Ridgecrest petitioned to become a formal intervenor in the commission's review, saying it had not taken a position on the project but wanted more analysis of water demand, of greenhouse gas emissions, and of electric capacity at the substation that also serves Ridgecrest and China Lake. The city said Southern California Edison's transmission studies for the project have not been made public.

The decision now before the California Energy Commission is whether to grant the project a Small Power Plant Exemption. As an intervenor, Ridgecrest would be able to submit evidence, take part in hearings, comment on environmental analyses and question witnesses.