Skip to content
Gridcensus

Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2

Brownfield

Maiden, Catawba, North Carolina · Apple, Inc

Legacy capacity
11
MW

Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2 is a natural gas plant in Maiden, Catawba, North Carolina, retired 2021-11-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 11 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 capacity11 MW
Retirement date2021-11-01
EIA plant ID#58264

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation0.1 mi
OperatorApple, Inc
Operator address5977 Startown Road, Maiden, NC, 28650
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 — Catawba 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)80,687
Construction employment3,070
Land value$7,785/acre
Datacenter tax incentivesales_tax_exemption

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate10.38¢/kWh
Industrial power rate7.12¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)1.5%

Water & cooling

Water stressLow
Public water supply4.3 MGD
Industrial water use0.0 MGD
Cooling degree days1,600
Mean annual temp59°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index42.0 · Relatively High
Fiber providers9 · 29% 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 Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2 — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.

SiteFormer useLegacy MWDistanceCleanup status
G G Allencoal plant1,14831.0 mi—
Riverbendcoal plant60122.8 mi—
Gastonia Duke Streetoil plant226.3 mi—
Maiden Finger Streetoil plant22.4 mi—
Gastonia Rankin Lakeoil plant226.4 mi—

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

Get alerts

Track Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2

Get an email when its DC-readiness score, available capacity, or interconnection-queue status changes.

No spam. Just the alerts you asked for.

Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2, ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
ALLENSubstation-AdjacentNCMecklenburg County230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs68.1
UNKNOWN112337Substation-AdjacentNCMecklenburg County230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs67.4
MCGUIRESubstation-AdjacentNCMecklenburg County500 kV1,000 MW3.8 yrs66.9
UNKNOWN114635Substation-AdjacentNCMecklenburg County230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs64.3
UNKNOWN111144Substation-AdjacentNCCaldwell County230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs62.7
TAP152593Substation-AdjacentNCCaldwell County230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs62.5
UNKNOWN111141Substation-AdjacentNCCaldwell County230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs62.3
OZ MecklenburgGreenfieldNCMecklenburg——4.3 yrs61.8

Nearby internet exchanges

See all datacenter sites in North Carolina →

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 Apple Data Center - Fuel Cell 1&2, Maiden, Catawba, North Carolina. 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.