Greenfield Datacenter Sites in Iowa
At a glance
Undeveloped land with no prior industrial use. Greenfield parcels offer maximum design flexibility and large contiguous footprints, but typically require full utility build-out — the speed-to-power story hinges on proximity to existing transmission.
Top greenfield sites in Iowa
| Site | Type | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC Near Walter Scott Jr Energy Center | Greenfield | Pottawattamie | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 66.1 |
| OZ Polk | Greenfield | Polk | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.8 |
| EC Near University of Iowa Main Power Plant | Greenfield | Johnson | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.8 |
| OZ Woodbury | Greenfield | Woodbury | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.8 |
| EC Coal Scott County | Greenfield | Scott County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.7 |
| OZ Black Hawk | Greenfield | Black Hawk | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.5 |
| EC Coal Woodbury County | Greenfield | Woodbury County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.4 |
| EC Near Iowa State University | Greenfield | Story | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.3 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.3 |
| EC Near Iowa State University | Greenfield | Story | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.2 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 65.0 |
| EC Near Waverly Municipal Electric North Plant | Greenfield | Bremer | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.9 |
| EC Near Metro Methane Recovery Facility | Greenfield | Polk | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.8 |
| EC Near George Neal North | Greenfield | Woodbury | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.8 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.7 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.6 |
| EC Coal Pottawattamie County | Greenfield | Pottawattamie County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.6 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.3 |
| EC Near Iowa State University | Greenfield | Story | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.2 |
| EC Near George Neal North | Greenfield | Woodbury | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 64.2 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 63.9 |
| EC Near Metro Methane Recovery Facility | Greenfield | Polk | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 63.8 |
| EC Near Lake Mills | Greenfield | Winnebago | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 63.7 |
| EC Near Metro Methane Recovery Facility | Greenfield | Polk | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 63.6 |
| EC Near Riverside | Greenfield | Scott | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 63.6 |
How does Iowa compare with other states for greenfield sites?
With 634 sites, Iowa ranks 9th of the 51 states that have any greenfield candidate sites. Texas leads with 1,276. Nationally, greenfield sites average 55.3/100 DC Readiness, above the 53.0 average across all site types. Across every site type, Iowa averages 56.3, the 8th-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.3 years.
Where are the highest-scoring greenfield sites in Iowa?
The top 25 range from 66.1 to 63.6 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Scott County (8), Polk (4), Woodbury (4) and Story (3). By grid region, 22 are in MISO and 3 are in SPP.
County pages: Scott County · Polk · Woodbury · Story
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these greenfield sites have?
Their counties have a median of 15 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 9 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 4.3 years. 1 of the 25 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 4 lie within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How many greenfield datacenter sites are in Iowa?
GridCensus catalogs 634 greenfield datacenter candidate sites in Iowa, 4% of the national total for this type (9th of 51 states).
What is a greenfield datacenter site?
Undeveloped land with no prior industrial use. Greenfield parcels offer maximum design flexibility and large contiguous footprints, but typically require full utility build-out — the speed-to-power story hinges on proximity to existing transmission.
What is the best greenfield datacenter site in Iowa?
By DC Readiness Score, EC Near Walter Scott Jr Energy Center in Pottawattamie ranks first at 66.1/100, followed by OZ Polk in Polk at 65.8.
Which Iowa counties have the best greenfield sites?
The top 25 greenfield sites in Iowa are concentrated in Scott County (8), Polk (4), Woodbury (4) and Story (3).
How does Iowa score for datacenters overall?
All 2,572 scored sites in Iowa average 56.3/100 DC Readiness, the 8th-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on greenfield sites and Iowa
Greenfield sites in other states
- Greenfield sites in Texas· 1,276 sites
- Greenfield sites in Pennsylvania· 973 sites
- Greenfield sites in California· 941 sites
- Greenfield sites in Illinois· 913 sites
- Greenfield sites in Florida· 791 sites
- Greenfield sites in Michigan· 719 sites
- Greenfield sites in Ohio· 680 sites
- Greenfield sites in Kentucky· 640 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, “Greenfield datacenter sites in Iowa”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/greenfield/iowa (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Greenfield sites in Iowa 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.