West Fairbault
BrownfieldFaribault, Rice, Minnesota · Northern States Power Co - Minnesota
West Fairbault is a natural gas plant in Faribault, Rice, Minnesota, retired 2006-12-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 49 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
Grid hookup & remediation
Site conditions & market — Rice 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
Power economics & interconnection
Water & cooling
Hazard, flood & connectivity
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 West Fairbault — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.
| Site | Former use | Legacy MW | Distance | Cleanup status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery | oil plant | 29 | 18.0 mi | — |
| Owatonna | natural gas plant | 26 | 13.2 mi | — |
| New Prague | natural gas plant | 1 | 23.5 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 West Fairbault, ranked by DC Readiness.
| Site | Type | State | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HELENA | Substation-Adjacent | MN | Scott County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 2.8 yrs | 67.1 |
| CHUB LAKE | Substation-Adjacent | MN | Scott County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 2.8 yrs | 66.4 |
| HAMPTON | Substation-Adjacent | MN | Dakota County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 2.8 yrs | 65.7 |
| OZ Waseca | Greenfield | MN | Waseca | — | — | 1.4 yrs | 65.1 |
| EC Near Owatonna | Greenfield | MN | Steele | — | — | 1.4 yrs | 64.7 |
| EC Near Montgomery | Greenfield | MN | Le Sueur | — | — | 1.4 yrs | 64.2 |
| EC Near Owatonna | Greenfield | MN | Steele | — | — | 1.4 yrs | 64.1 |
| EC Near West Fairbault | Greenfield | MN | Rice | — | — | 1.4 yrs | 63.9 |
Nearby internet exchanges
- DataBank Minneapolis (MSP2)Eagan, MN · 10 networks
- Flexential - Minneapolis/Chaska (MSP01)Chaska, MN · 5 networks
- NP Belle Plaine (MSP1)Belle Plaine, MN · 4 networks
- DataBank Minneapolis (MSP1)Edina, MN · 4 networks
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
This page shows a public slice of the GridCensus dataset for West Fairbault, Faribault, Rice, Minnesota. Pro and Enterprise plans unlock the full 147,272-site catalog, raw sub-scores, parcel ownership, interconnection-queue detail, saved searches, and programmatic API access.