Former Mine Datacenter Sites
At a glance
Decommissioned or active mining land. Mine sites often retain heavy electrical service and water rights from prior operations, and many sit near coal-plant substations now freeing up grid capacity.
How do former mine sites compare with other site types?
Former Mine sites are the 3rd-largest of 9 site types by count and the 8th-highest of 9 by average DC Readiness. Their 49.7 average is below the 53.0 average across all 147,272 sites. The average interconnection-queue wait in their markets, 4.1 yrs, is the 3rd-shortest of 9. The former mine category is strongest on water, averaging 79.6 against a national average of 72.3; its weakest factor is power availability, at 30.0 versus 37.4 nationally.
Where are former mine datacenter sites located?
The five states with the most are Kentucky (5,049, 19%), Pennsylvania (3,356, 13%), West Virginia (2,495, 10%), Virginia (1,614, 6%) and Alabama (1,069, 4%). Former Mine sites appear in 50 states. By grid region, PJM holds 49%, SERC holds 14% and MISO holds 11%.
Former Mine sites by state
- Kentucky5,049
- Pennsylvania3,356
- West Virginia2,495
- Virginia1,614
- Alabama1,069
- Texas935
- Ohio925
- Tennessee661
- New York611
- Colorado471
- Indiana457
- California451
- Arizona427
- Oklahoma379
- Montana377
- Illinois368
- Wisconsin364
- Utah354
- Missouri336
- Minnesota332
- Washington321
- Michigan304
- Nevada296
- Alaska292
- Oregon274
- Idaho258
- Arkansas245
- New Mexico241
- Louisiana238
- Wyoming221
- Iowa200
- North Carolina196
- Maine192
- Georgia185
- Florida181
- Vermont163
- Kansas160
- South Dakota150
- Maryland149
- Massachusetts141
- Mississippi129
- Nebraska115
- North Dakota108
- Connecticut104
- New Hampshire91
- South Carolina78
- Hawaii58
- New Jersey54
- Rhode Island24
- Delaware6
Average sub-score profile
Top 25 former mine datacenter sites
| Site | Type | State | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TN | Hamilton County | — | — | 3.9 yrs | 58.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MO | Clay County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 58.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MO | Clay County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 58.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MO | Clay County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 58.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MO | Greene County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 58.0 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MT | Rosebud County | — | — | 1.1 yrs | 57.9 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MT | Gallatin County | — | — | 1.1 yrs | 57.9 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MI | Eaton County | — | — | 2.2 yrs | 57.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TX | Bexar County | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MT | Yellowstone County | — | — | 1.1 yrs | 57.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | WI | Wood County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MO | Platte County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MO | Platte County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | WI | Wood County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | AL | Madison County | — | — | 3.9 yrs | 57.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TX | Tarrant County | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TX | Tarrant County | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MT | Yellowstone County | — | — | 1.1 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TX | Nueces County | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TX | Bexar County | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | WI | Dane County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MT | Yellowstone County | — | — | 1.1 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | MI | Cass County | — | — | 2.2 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | CT | Naugatuck Valley County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.6 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | TX | Cameron County | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.6 |
What do the top-scoring former mine sites have in common?
The top 25 former mine sites score between 57.6 and 58.6. 6 are in Missouri, 6 are in Texas and 5 are in Montana. Their counties have a median of 13 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 3 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 3.5 years. None of the 5 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 3 lie within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Former Mine site FAQ
What is a former mine datacenter site?
Decommissioned or active mining land. Mine sites often retain heavy electrical service and water rights from prior operations, and many sit near coal-plant substations now freeing up grid capacity.
How many former mine datacenter sites are there?
GridCensus catalogs 26,205 former mine candidate sites nationwide, averaging 49.7/100 DC Readiness — 18% of all scored sites.
Which state has the most former mine datacenter sites?
Kentucky leads with 5,049 former mine candidate sites, followed by Pennsylvania with 3,356.
What is the highest-scoring former mine datacenter site?
Mine Site in Hamilton County, Tennessee has the highest DC Readiness Score of any former mine site, at 58.6/100.
How long is the interconnection queue for former mine sites?
Former Mine candidate sites sit in markets with an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.1 yrs, the 3rd-shortest of 9 site types.
Other datacenter site types
- Greenfield datacenter sites· 18,112 sites
- Industrial datacenter sites· 35,788 sites
- Substation-Adjacent datacenter sites· 38,820 sites
- Federal Excess datacenter sites· 17,528 sites
- Manufacturing datacenter sites· 7,657 sites
- Shovel-Ready datacenter sites· 2,365 sites
- Brownfield datacenter sites· 771 sites
- Military BRAC datacenter sites· 26 sites
By grid region
- PJM datacenter sites· 12,623 former mine
- SERC datacenter sites· 3,513 former mine
- MISO datacenter sites· 2,903 former mine
- WECC datacenter sites· 2,757 former mine
- SPP datacenter sites· 1,640 former mine
- ISO-NE datacenter sites· 728 former mine
- ERCOT datacenter sites· 617 former mine
- NYISO datacenter sites· 595 former mine
- CAISO datacenter sites· 479 former mine
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, “Former Mine datacenter candidate sites”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/mine (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Former Mine sites 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.