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Gridcensus

Fairmont (MN)

Brownfield

Fairmont, Martin, Minnesota · Southern Minnesota Mun P Agny

Legacy capacity
23
MW

Fairmont (MN) is a natural gas plant in Fairmont, Martin, Minnesota, retired 2009-12-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 23 MW of generation, so the grid hookup, transmission rights, and often cooling-water access are already in place — collapsing the speed-to-power timeline versus a greenfield build.

Former use & capacity

Former usenatural gas plant
Site typeretired_plant
Existing capacity23 MW
Retirement date2009-12-01
EIA plant ID#1973

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation0.7 mi
Operator address7th & Lincoln Street, Fairmont, MN, 56031
Why this site is datacenter-attractive: a natural gas plant of this scale leaves behind a high-capacity grid interconnection that a new load can re-use, frequently shaving years off the interconnection queue. Retired-plant sites also tend to be already zoned for heavy industrial use with established road, rail, and water infrastructure.

Site conditions & market — Martin County

County-level intelligence for this site's location — the power economics, water, hazard, connectivity, and workforce a developer screens before ever visiting. Assembled from FEMA NRI, BLS QCEW, FCC BDC, USGS water-use, and EIA.

Market & workforce

Total employment (laborshed)6,978
Construction employment241
Land value$8,968/acre
Datacenter tax incentivesales_tax_exemption

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate12.26¢/kWh
Industrial power rate7.28¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)0.7%

Water & cooling

Water stressLow
Public water supply1.6 MGD
Industrial water use1.2 MGD
Cooling degree days600
Mean annual temp42°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index25.0 · Relatively Moderate
Fiber providers7 · 26% served

County-level context — address-level utility offerings and flood zoning vary within the county. Confirm site-specific service with the utility and a Phase I ESA.

Nearby brownfield & retired-generation sites

A proximity screen of other retired-plant, contaminated, and EPA-flagged sites near Fairmont (MN) — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.

SiteFormer useLegacy MWDistanceCleanup status
Fox Lakenatural gas plant13312.2 mi—
Esthervilleoil plant225.9 mi—

Derived from GridCensus's retired-generator & EPA brownfield dataset. Not a substitute for an ASTM E1527 Phase I environmental radius report.

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Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near Fairmont (MN), ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Fairmont (MN)
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
OZ FaribaultGreenfieldMNFaribault——1.4 yrs61.4
UNKNOWN173521Substation-AdjacentMNWatonwan County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs61.3
UNKNOWN132584Substation-AdjacentMNWatonwan County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs61.2
TAP138022Substation-AdjacentMNWatonwan County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs61.1
EC Near EsthervilleGreenfieldIAEmmet——1.4 yrs60.6
EC Near EsthervilleGreenfieldIAEmmet——1.4 yrs60.5
EC Near EsthervilleGreenfieldIAEmmet——1.4 yrs60.3
OZ EmmetGreenfieldIAEmmet——1.4 yrs60.1

See all datacenter sites in Minnesota →

Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.

Brownfield attributes are derived from EIA retired-generator and EPA public data. Existing capacity reflects the retired plant's historical nameplate, not deliverable interconnection for a new load. Confirm reusable interconnection rights, remediation status, and site availability with the utility, ISO, and current owner.

Go deeper than the public screen

Every site and score for Fairmont (MN), Fairmont, Martin, Minnesota is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.