Brownfield Datacenter Sites in Minnesota
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 Minnesota
| Site | Type | County | Former use | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seneca Community Solar Garden | Brownfield | Dakota | landfill | 69 kV | 1 MW | 4.3 yrs | 62.5 |
| West Group Data Center F | Brownfield | Dakota | oil | 69 kV | 8 MW | 4.3 yrs | 61.6 |
| Moorhead | Brownfield | Clay County | oil | — | 10 MW | 4.3 yrs | 61.5 |
| United Hospital | Brownfield | Ramsey County | oil | 115 kV | 5 MW | 4.3 yrs | 60.8 |
| Lindenfelser Landfill | Brownfield | Wright | landfill | 115 kV | — | 4.3 yrs | 60.7 |
| United Health Care | Brownfield | Hennepin County | oil | 115 kV | 4 MW | 4.3 yrs | 60.4 |
| Hutchinson Landfill | Brownfield | McLeod | landfill | 69 kV | 0 MW | 4.3 yrs | 59.9 |
| Saint Marys Hospital Power Plant | Brownfield | Olmsted County | gas | — | 3 MW | 4.3 yrs | 59.6 |
| Washington County Landfill (MN) | Brownfield | Washington | superfund | 115 kV | 0 MW | 4.3 yrs | 59.3 |
| Alliant Techsystems | Brownfield | Hennepin County | oil | — | 2 MW | 4.3 yrs | 58.5 |
| Archer Daniels Midland Mankato | Brownfield | Blue Earth County | gas | — | 4 MW | 4.3 yrs | 58.4 |
| Fairmont (MN) | Brownfield | Martin County | gas | — | 23 MW | 4.3 yrs | 58.4 |
| EKS Landfill | Brownfield | Scott County | gas | — | 5 MW | 4.3 yrs | 58.3 |
| Mountain Lake | Brownfield | Cottonwood County | oil | — | 2 MW | 4.3 yrs | 56.5 |
| Fergus Control Ctr | Brownfield | Otter Tail County | oil | — | 2 MW | 4.3 yrs | 56.1 |
| Windom | Brownfield | Cottonwood County | oil | — | 3 MW | 4.3 yrs | 55.1 |
| Co Rd 33 | Brownfield | Lyon County | oil | — | 5 MW | 4.3 yrs | 54.8 |
| Lanesboro | Brownfield | Fillmore County | oil | — | 1 MW | 4.3 yrs | 54.4 |
How does Minnesota compare with other states for brownfield sites?
With 18 sites, Minnesota ranks 15th of the 49 states that have any brownfield candidate sites. California leads with 103. Nationally, brownfield sites average 57.5/100 DC Readiness, above the 53.0 average across all site types. Across every site type, Minnesota averages 56.0, the 11th-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.3 years.
Where are the highest-scoring brownfield sites in Minnesota?
The top 18 range from 62.5 to 54.4 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Dakota (2), Hennepin County (2) and Cottonwood County (2). By grid region, 17 are in MISO and 1 is in SPP.
County pages: Dakota · Hennepin County · Cottonwood County · Clay County
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these brownfield sites have?
Of the top 18 brownfield sites in Minnesota, 7 have a recorded nearest-substation voltage, with a median of 115 kV; for 0 that substation is rated 230 kV or higher. Their counties have a median of 11 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 22 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 4.3 years. 2 of the 17 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sit in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 1 lies within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How many brownfield datacenter sites are in Minnesota?
GridCensus catalogs 18 brownfield datacenter candidate sites in Minnesota, 2% of the national total for this type (15th 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 Minnesota?
By DC Readiness Score, Seneca Community Solar Garden in Dakota ranks first at 62.5/100, followed by West Group Data Center F in Dakota at 61.6.
Which Minnesota counties have the best brownfield sites?
The top 18 brownfield sites in Minnesota are concentrated in Dakota (2), Hennepin County (2) and Cottonwood County (2).
How does Minnesota score for datacenters overall?
All 3,216 scored sites in Minnesota average 56.0/100 DC Readiness, the 11th-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on brownfield sites and Minnesota
- All datacenter sites in Minnesota· 3,216 sites
- Brownfield datacenter sites nationwide· 771 sites
- Substation-Adjacent sites in Minnesota· 1,270 sites
- Industrial sites in Minnesota· 911 sites
- Greenfield sites in Minnesota· 594 sites
- Former Mine sites in Minnesota· 332 sites
- Federal Excess sites in Minnesota· 69 sites
- Shovel-Ready sites in Minnesota· 21 sites
Brownfield sites in other states
- Brownfield sites in California· 103 sites
- Brownfield sites in New Jersey· 52 sites
- Brownfield sites in New York· 48 sites
- Brownfield sites in Massachusetts· 44 sites
- Brownfield sites in Iowa· 38 sites
- Brownfield sites in Illinois· 33 sites
- Brownfield sites in Texas· 30 sites
- Brownfield sites in Ohio· 29 sites
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 Minnesota”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/brownfield/minnesota (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Brownfield sites in Minnesota 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.