States with the Most Brownfield Datacenter Sites
States ranked by the number of brownfield candidate sites — previously developed parcels that trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups and infill locations. California leads with 103 (brownfield candidate sites), ahead of New Jersey (52).
At a glance
| # | State | Brownfield candidate sites |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 103 |
| 2 | New Jersey | 52 |
| 3 | New York | 48 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 44 |
| 5 | Iowa | 38 |
| 6 | Illinois | 33 |
| 7 | Texas | 30 |
| 8 | Ohio | 29 |
| 9 | Kansas | 23 |
| 10 | Florida | 21 |
| 11 | Michigan | 21 |
| 12 | Alaska | 20 |
| 13 | Pennsylvania | 19 |
| 14 | Minnesota | 18 |
| 15 | Nevada | 18 |
| 16 | Connecticut | 13 |
| 17 | Indiana | 13 |
| 18 | South Carolina | 13 |
| 19 | Arizona | 12 |
| 20 | Missouri | 12 |
| 21 | North Carolina | 12 |
| 22 | Virginia | 12 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 12 |
| 24 | Colorado | 11 |
| 25 | Louisiana | 10 |
| 26 | Maryland | 10 |
| 27 | New Mexico | 10 |
| 28 | Nebraska | 9 |
| 29 | Tennessee | 9 |
| 30 | Maine | 8 |
| 31 | Vermont | 8 |
| 32 | Washington | 8 |
| 33 | Georgia | 7 |
| 34 | Rhode Island | 7 |
| 35 | Hawaii | 6 |
| 36 | Oregon | 6 |
| 37 | South Dakota | 6 |
| 38 | Alabama | 5 |
| 39 | Oklahoma | 5 |
| 40 | Wyoming | 5 |
| 41 | Arkansas | 4 |
| 42 | New Hampshire | 4 |
| 43 | North Dakota | 4 |
| 44 | Utah | 4 |
| 45 | Kentucky | 3 |
| 46 | Delaware | 2 |
| 47 | Idaho | 2 |
| 48 | District of Columbia | 1 |
| 49 | West Virginia | 1 |
What does this ranking measure?
The count of brownfield candidate sites per state: previously developed land such as retired power plants and EPA-listed brownfields, which often keep an existing grid connection. Higher values rank first. This ranking covers 49 states, computed from 147,272 scored candidate sites, and spans 103 at the top and 1 at the bottom. The median state sits at 10.
How do the top 5 compare?
The top 5 are California (103), New Jersey (52), New York (48), Massachusetts (44), Iowa (38). Their candidate sites sit mostly in CAISO, PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE, MISO territory. At the other end, Idaho (2), District of Columbia (1), West Virginia (1) rank lowest.
How does California rank on other measures?
California has 8,490 catalogued candidate sites with an average DC Readiness score of 45.4 and an average interconnection-queue wait of 7.6 years. On the other state rankings it places 51st of 51 for datacenter readiness (45.4); 2nd of 51 for most datacenter candidate sites (8,490); 3rd of 51 for largest catalogued candidate capacity (272.4k MW); 51st of 51 for shortest interconnection queue wait (7.6 yrs); 44th of 51 for fastest speed-to-power (42.6); 47th of 51 for lowest water stress for cooling (27.2).
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 with the Most Brownfield Datacenter Sites: which state ranks first?
California ranks first with 103 (brownfield candidate sites), followed by New Jersey (52).
How is this ranking calculated?
The count of brownfield candidate sites per state: previously developed land such as retired power plants and EPA-listed brownfields, which often keep an existing grid connection. 49 states are ranked, higher values first.
Which state ranks last?
West Virginia ranks 49th of 49, at 1.
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 with the Most Brownfield Datacenter Sites”, https://gridcensus.com/rankings/states-most-brownfield-sites (data as of November 12, 2026).
Related rankings
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
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.