Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in North Dakota
8 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in North Dakota, listed by former capacity. Each carries an existing utility-scale grid interconnection that a new datacenter load may be able to re-use.
At a glance
What kinds of former sites are in North Dakota?
By former use, the list includes 3 coal, 3 oil, 1 natural gas, 1 Superfund. Recorded retirement dates run from January 2012 to February 2022, with 3 retirements in 2015 or later. 5 of 7 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does North Dakota compare with other states?
North Dakota ranks 47th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (334 MW) it ranks 45th, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 1,020 scored datacenter candidate sites, 4 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 55.7 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in North Dakota are these sites?
- Mercer County · 1
- Morton County · 1
- Williams County · 1
- Grand Forks County · 1
- Cass County · 1
- Pembina County · 1
- McLean County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in North Dakota
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanton | coal | 191 MW | 2017-03-01 | Mercer |
| R M Heskett | coal | 115 MW | 2022-02-01 | Morton |
| Williston | gas | 10 MW | 2012-01-01 | Williams |
| Grand Forks | oil | 9 MW | 2012-12-01 | Grand Forks |
| Harwood | oil | 5 MW | 2012-12-01 | Cass |
| Walhalla | coal | 2 MW | 2012-04-01 | Pembina |
| Coal Creek | oil | 2 MW | 2016-01-01 | McLean |
| Arsenic Trioxide Site | superfund | 0 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in North Dakota?
GridCensus lists 7 retired power plant sites in North Dakota from EIA-860 retirement records. 7 have a recorded retirement date, 3 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in North Dakota?
Stanton in Stanton is the largest by recorded capacity, at 191.2 MW. It is followed by R M Heskett (115 MW) and Williston (10 MW).
Which power plant in North Dakota retired most recently?
R M Heskett has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, February 2022, with 115 MW of capacity.
Which county in North Dakota has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Mercer County has the most, with 1, followed by Morton County with 1.
How many EPA brownfield sites in North Dakota have completed cleanup?
1 of the 1 EPA-tracked sites listed for North Dakota are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on North Dakota, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in North Dakota· 1,020 sites
- Electric substations in North Dakota· 64 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in West Virginia· 9 sites
- Brownfield sites in Montana· 7 sites
- Brownfield sites in Delaware· 9 sites
- Brownfield sites in Idaho· 6 sites
About this data
Source: EIA-860 retired generating units and EPA RE-Powering America's Land contaminated-site records, as published March 6, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield and retired power plant sites in North Dakota”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/north-dakota (data as of March 6, 2026).
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for brownfield sites in North Dakota 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.