Brownfield Datacenter Sites in California
At a glance
Previously developed land with real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups, infill locations near fiber, and redevelopment incentives.
Top brownfield sites in California
| Site | Type | County | Former use | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TESLA Power Project | Brownfield | Alameda County | gas | 500 kV | 1,322 MW | 7.6 yrs | 66.5 |
| Broadway (CA) | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 167 MW | 7.6 yrs | 62.4 |
| Hunters Point | Brownfield | San Mateo County | gas | 115 kV | 427 MW | 7.6 yrs | 61.3 |
| Anaheim GT | Brownfield | Orange County | gas | 66 kV | 49 MW | 7.6 yrs | 59.0 |
| Paramount Refinery | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 7 MW | 7.6 yrs | 59.0 |
| UCLA So Campus Cogen Project | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 230 kV | 15 MW | 7.6 yrs | 58.9 |
| Magnolia | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 88 MW | 7.6 yrs | 58.8 |
| Juniper Networks Sunnyvale | Brownfield | Alameda County | gas | 115 kV | 1 MW | 7.6 yrs | 58.1 |
| Central Utilities Plant LAX | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 8 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.9 |
| SC 1 Data Center, Phase 2 | Brownfield | Santa Clara County | oil | 60 kV | 2 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.3 |
| Amazon San Bernardino | Brownfield | Orange County | gas | 500 kV | 1 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.2 |
| Extreme San Ignacio | Brownfield | Santa Clara County | gas | 115 kV | 1 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.1 |
| Sierra Pacific Lincoln Facility | Brownfield | Sutter County | biomass | 66 kV | 13 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.1 |
| Commerce Refuse To Energy | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | waste | 66 kV | 12 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.0 |
| Tequesquite Landfill | Brownfield | Riverside | landfill | 66 kV | 8 MW | 7.6 yrs | 57.0 |
| Richmond Refinery TG800 | Brownfield | Marin County | gas | 115 kV | 21 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.8 |
| Silver Gate | Brownfield | San Diego County | oil | 69 kV | 247 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.7 |
| Southeast Resource Recovery | Brownfield | Orange County | waste | 66 kV | 36 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.7 |
| Pacific Coast Pipeline | Brownfield | Ventura | superfund | 69 kV | 3 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.5 |
| CES Placerita Power Plant | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 60 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.5 |
| Palos Verdes Gas to Energy | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 13 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.5 |
| North Hollywood | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | hydro | 66 kV | 8 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.1 |
| Alvarado Hydro Facility | Brownfield | San Diego County | hydro | 69 kV | 4 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.0 |
| Honda Torrance | Brownfield | Los Angeles County | gas | 66 kV | 1 MW | 7.6 yrs | 56.0 |
| Turlock Irrigation District Fuel Cell | Brownfield | Stanislaus County | biomass | 66 kV | 1 MW | 7.6 yrs | 55.9 |
How does California compare with other states for brownfield sites?
With 103 sites, California ranks 1st of the 49 states that have any brownfield candidate sites. Nationally, brownfield sites average 57.5/100 DC Readiness, above the 53.0 average across all site types. Across every site type, California averages 45.4, the 52nd-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 7.6 years.
Where are the highest-scoring brownfield sites in California?
The top 25 range from 66.5 to 55.9 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Los Angeles County (10), Orange County (3), Alameda County (2) and Santa Clara County (2). By grid region, 20 are in CAISO and 5 are in WECC.
County pages: Los Angeles County · Orange County · Alameda County · Santa Clara County
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these brownfield sites have?
Of the top 25 brownfield sites in California, 25 have a recorded nearest-substation voltage, with a median of 66 kV; for 3 that substation is rated 230 kV or higher. Their counties have a median of 18 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 10 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 7.6 years. None of the 25 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 6 lie within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How many brownfield datacenter sites are in California?
GridCensus catalogs 103 brownfield datacenter candidate sites in California, 13% of the national total for this type (1st of 49 states).
What is a brownfield datacenter site?
Previously developed land with real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups, infill locations near fiber, and redevelopment incentives.
What is the best brownfield datacenter site in California?
By DC Readiness Score, TESLA Power Project in Alameda County ranks first at 66.5/100, followed by Broadway (CA) in Los Angeles County at 62.4.
Which California counties have the best brownfield sites?
The top 25 brownfield sites in California are concentrated in Los Angeles County (10), Orange County (3), Alameda County (2) and Santa Clara County (2).
How does California score for datacenters overall?
All 8,490 scored sites in California average 45.4/100 DC Readiness, the 52nd-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on brownfield sites and California
- All datacenter sites in California· 8,490 sites
- Brownfield datacenter sites nationwide· 771 sites
- Federal Excess sites in California· 3,212 sites
- Industrial sites in California· 2,201 sites
- Substation-Adjacent sites in California· 1,573 sites
- Greenfield sites in California· 941 sites
- Former Mine sites in California· 451 sites
- Military BRAC sites in California· 9 sites
Brownfield sites in other states
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
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, “Brownfield datacenter sites in California”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/brownfield/california (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Brownfield sites in California 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.