States by Largest Catalogued Candidate Capacity
States ranked by the sum of per-site available-capacity estimates — a theoretical aggregate of candidate megawatts, not deliverable power. Texas leads with 585.3k MW (catalogued candidate capacity), ahead of Georgia (280.3k MW).
At a glance
| # | State | Catalogued candidate capacity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 585.3k MW |
| 2 | Georgia | 280.3k MW |
| 3 | California | 272.4k MW |
| 4 | Florida | 260.1k MW |
| 5 | Washington | 198.4k MW |
| 6 | North Carolina | 186.5k MW |
| 7 | Virginia | 168.2k MW |
| 8 | Alabama | 166.9k MW |
| 9 | Illinois | 166.4k MW |
| 10 | Minnesota | 161.6k MW |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 156.2k MW |
| 12 | Pennsylvania | 155.6k MW |
| 13 | Indiana | 155.1k MW |
| 14 | Ohio | 148.9k MW |
| 15 | New York | 137.5k MW |
| 16 | South Carolina | 135.7k MW |
| 17 | Tennessee | 133.3k MW |
| 18 | Michigan | 128.2k MW |
| 19 | Colorado | 125.2k MW |
| 20 | Louisiana | 123.7k MW |
| 21 | Utah | 121.8k MW |
| 22 | Oregon | 121.4k MW |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 118.4k MW |
| 24 | Missouri | 116.4k MW |
| 25 | Mississippi | 112.5k MW |
| 26 | Arizona | 110.0k MW |
| 27 | Kentucky | 104.9k MW |
| 28 | Arkansas | 100.5k MW |
| 29 | Kansas | 99.7k MW |
| 30 | Iowa | 82.3k MW |
| 31 | Nebraska | 80.2k MW |
| 32 | Idaho | 76.5k MW |
| 33 | Montana | 72.9k MW |
| 34 | North Dakota | 71.9k MW |
| 35 | Nevada | 66.6k MW |
| 36 | New Mexico | 66.1k MW |
| 37 | West Virginia | 66.1k MW |
| 38 | Maryland | 58.2k MW |
| 39 | Wyoming | 58.0k MW |
| 40 | Massachusetts | 52.7k MW |
| 41 | New Jersey | 52.2k MW |
| 42 | South Dakota | 48.0k MW |
| 43 | Connecticut | 27.9k MW |
| 44 | Maine | 23.6k MW |
| 45 | New Hampshire | 17.6k MW |
| 46 | Alaska | 13.1k MW |
| 47 | Vermont | 11.7k MW |
| 48 | Delaware | 11.6k MW |
| 49 | Rhode Island | 9.3k MW |
| 50 | Hawaii | 3.7k MW |
| 51 | District of Columbia | 3.0k MW |
What does this ranking measure?
The sum of per-site available-capacity estimates across a state's candidate sites, in megawatts. It is a theoretical aggregate of per-site estimates, not deliverable power. Higher values rank first. This ranking covers 51 states, computed from 147,272 scored candidate sites, and spans 585.3k MW at the top and 3.0k MW at the bottom. The median state sits at 110,029.
How do the top 5 compare with the national figure?
The top 5 are Texas (585.3k MW), Georgia (280.3k MW), California (272.4k MW), Florida (260.1k MW), Washington (198.4k MW). That compares with a per-state average of 114,402 MW. In all, 24 of 51 states do better than that figure. Their candidate sites sit mostly in ERCOT, SERC, CAISO, WECC territory. At the other end, Rhode Island (9.3k MW), Hawaii (3.7k MW), District of Columbia (3.0k MW) rank lowest.
How does Texas rank on other measures?
Texas has 6,839 catalogued candidate sites with an average DC Readiness score of 56.4 and an average interconnection-queue wait of 3.5 years. On the other state rankings it places 7th of 51 for datacenter readiness (56.4); 4th of 51 for most datacenter candidate sites (6,839); 9th of 51 for shortest interconnection queue wait (3.5 yrs); 1st of 51 for fastest speed-to-power (71.6); 44th of 51 for lowest water stress for cooling (45.8); 7th of 49 for most brownfield datacenter sites (30).
Values are screening estimates from public data — not site-specific assessments, and catalogued capacity is a theoretical aggregate, not deliverable power. Full methodology →
Ranking FAQ
States by Largest Catalogued Candidate Capacity: which state ranks first?
Texas ranks first with 585.3k MW (catalogued candidate capacity), followed by Georgia (280.3k MW).
How is this ranking calculated?
The sum of per-site available-capacity estimates across a state's candidate sites, in megawatts. It is a theoretical aggregate of per-site estimates, not deliverable power. 51 states are ranked, higher values first.
Which state ranks last?
District of Columbia ranks 51st of 51, at 3.0k MW.
How many states beat the national figure?
24 of 51 states do better than a per-state average of 114,402 MW.
How often is this ranking updated?
It is recomputed from the full candidate-site dataset after each monthly data refresh.
Explore the leading states
About this data
Source: GridCensus composite of HIFLD transmission and substation data, EIA, FEMA National Risk Index, FCC broadband data, PeeringDB and ISO interconnection queues, as published November 12, 2026 — GridCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “States by Largest Catalogued Candidate Capacity”, https://gridcensus.com/rankings/states-largest-candidate-capacity (data as of November 12, 2026).
Related rankings
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
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Every site and score 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.