Former Mine Datacenter Sites in Iowa
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.
Top former mine sites in Iowa
| Site | Type | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Cerro Gordo County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.3 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Woodbury County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Woodbury County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Woodbury County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Johnson County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Clay County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Woodbury County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Woodbury County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 57.0 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.9 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Dallas County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Dallas County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Dallas County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Dallas County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.8 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Hardin County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.7 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Cerro Gordo County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.3 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Cerro Gordo County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.3 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Dallas County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Clay County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.2 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.1 |
| Mine Site | Former Mine | Polk County | — | — | 4.3 yrs | 56.1 |
How does Iowa compare with other states for former mine sites?
With 200 sites, Iowa ranks 31st of the 50 states that have any former mine candidate sites. Kentucky leads with 5,049. Nationally, former mine sites average 49.7/100 DC Readiness, below 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 former mine sites in Iowa?
The top 25 range from 57.3 to 56.1 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Polk County (8), Woodbury County (5), Dallas County (5) and Cerro Gordo County (3). By grid region, 25 are in MISO.
County pages: Polk County · Woodbury County · Dallas County · Cerro Gordo County
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these former mine sites have?
Their counties have a median of 17 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 4 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 4.3 years. None of the 4 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 5 lie within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How many former mine datacenter sites are in Iowa?
GridCensus catalogs 200 former mine datacenter candidate sites in Iowa, 0.8% of the national total for this type (31st of 50 states).
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.
What is the best former mine datacenter site in Iowa?
By DC Readiness Score, Mine Site in Cerro Gordo County ranks first at 57.3/100, followed by Mine Site in Woodbury County at 57.2.
Which Iowa counties have the best former mine sites?
The top 25 former mine sites in Iowa are concentrated in Polk County (8), Woodbury County (5), Dallas County (5) and Cerro Gordo County (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 former mine sites and Iowa
Former Mine sites in other states
- Former Mine sites in Kentucky· 5,049 sites
- Former Mine sites in Pennsylvania· 3,356 sites
- Former Mine sites in West Virginia· 2,495 sites
- Former Mine sites in Virginia· 1,614 sites
- Former Mine sites in Alabama· 1,069 sites
- Former Mine sites in Texas· 935 sites
- Former Mine sites in Ohio· 925 sites
- Former Mine sites in Tennessee· 661 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, “Former Mine datacenter sites in Iowa”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/mine/iowa (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Former Mine 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.