The data center's developer previously applied for a permit to build a solar farm, a project Boulder officials say is a far cry from the more energy-intensive data center now being proposed.
The Boulder City, Nevada city council unanimously voted to contest the Bureau of Land Management's decision to approve a data center on BLM land near Boulder in the Eldorado Valley.
As Jeniffer Solis reports in Nevada Current, "Townsite Solar 2 LLC — the project developer — originally received federal approval in 2023 to build a solar power generation and battery storage facility on the parcel, but requested an amended right-of-way grant in 2025 to build a data center instead." City council members protested the government's acceptance of the environmental review for a solar farm for a much different project with a use that has never been authorized on BLM land.
According to Solis, "The approval to build on federal land effectively strips the city of any authority over the project, which was originally moving through the city’s land leasing process. During that process, the city’s planning commission voted unanimously in May not to recommend the construction of the data center on city-owned land."
In 2025, the White House published "America's AI Action Plan," which supports opening up federal lands for data center construction.
Read the full story: Boulder City Council seeks to stop data center on BLM land
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The Biden administration originally approved the same patch of federal land for a solar farm in 2023.
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