Brownfield Datacenter Sites in Tennessee
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 Tennessee
| Site | Type | County | Former use | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music City Solar | Brownfield | Davidson | landfill | — | 2 MW | 3.9 yrs | 69.3 |
| Volkswagen Chattanooga | Brownfield | Hamilton | rcra | 161 kV | 10 MW | 3.9 yrs | 67.0 |
| Franklin (TN) | Brownfield | Franklin County | gas | — | 510 MW | 3.9 yrs | 65.4 |
| OAK RIDGE RESERVATION (USDOE) | Brownfield | Anderson | superfund | 161 kV | 0 MW | 3.9 yrs | 65.1 |
| Watts Bar Fossil | Brownfield | Meigs County | coal | — | 240 MW | 3.9 yrs | 63.5 |
| Buffalo Mountain | Brownfield | Anderson | mine | 69 kV | 2 MW | 3.9 yrs | 62.5 |
| Somerville Solar Project | Brownfield | Fayette | landfill | 161 kV | 3 MW | 3.9 yrs | 61.9 |
| MTSU Power Co-Gen Plant | Brownfield | Rutherford County | oil | — | 10 MW | 3.9 yrs | 60.7 |
| Middle Point Landfill Gas Recovery | Brownfield | Rutherford County | gas | — | 3 MW | 3.9 yrs | 60.2 |
How does Tennessee compare with other states for brownfield sites?
With 9 sites, Tennessee ranks 29th 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, Tennessee averages 57.0, the 4th-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.0 years.
Where are the highest-scoring brownfield sites in Tennessee?
The top 9 range from 69.3 to 60.2 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Anderson (2) and Rutherford County (2). By grid region, 9 are in SERC.
County pages: Anderson · Rutherford County · Davidson · Hamilton
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these brownfield sites have?
Of the top 9 brownfield sites in Tennessee, 4 have a recorded nearest-substation voltage, with a median of 161 kV; for 0 that substation is rated 230 kV or higher. Their counties have a median of 9 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 32 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 3.9 years. None of the 9 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone.
Frequently asked questions
How many brownfield datacenter sites are in Tennessee?
GridCensus catalogs 9 brownfield datacenter candidate sites in Tennessee, 1% of the national total for this type (29th 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 Tennessee?
By DC Readiness Score, Music City Solar in Davidson ranks first at 69.3/100, followed by Volkswagen Chattanooga in Hamilton at 67.0.
Which Tennessee counties have the best brownfield sites?
The top 9 brownfield sites in Tennessee are concentrated in Anderson (2) and Rutherford County (2).
How does Tennessee score for datacenters overall?
All 2,190 scored sites in Tennessee average 57.0/100 DC Readiness, the 4th-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on brownfield sites and Tennessee
- All datacenter sites in Tennessee· 2,190 sites
- Brownfield datacenter sites nationwide· 771 sites
- Substation-Adjacent sites in Tennessee· 886 sites
- Former Mine sites in Tennessee· 661 sites
- Greenfield sites in Tennessee· 341 sites
- Industrial sites in Tennessee· 247 sites
- Shovel-Ready sites in Tennessee· 45 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 Tennessee”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/brownfield/tennessee (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Brownfield sites in Tennessee 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.