Aligned Data Centers has broken ground on a new project in Pennsylvania.

The company recently announced the groundbreaking of Project Phoenix, a new 2GW data center campus located in Shippingport.

Located in the Shippingport Industrial Park in Beaver County, the site will total three facilities.

The campus sits adjacent to the Shippingport Power Station, a former coal power plant that is being redeveloped into an advanced, natural gas energy campus. Aligned said the data center campus will use its own dedicated on-site power source rather than the local electrical grid.

“Project Phoenix represents the future of responsible data center development,” said Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “The project is a legacy reimagined that transforms a dormant industrial site into a foundational asset for the local community. Beyond delivering critical infrastructure for our customers, this investment establishes a powerful new economic hub for Western Pennsylvania and creates long-term prosperity for local workers and the community.”

Shippingport, in Beaver County, is located some 30 miles (48.2km) northwest of Pittsburgh, close to the state borders with West Virginia and Ohio. News that Aligned was looking to develop within the 660-acre industrial park surfaced in February. The site is owned by the Frontier Group of Companies.

Shippingport Mayor John Erickson emphasized the project’s impact on the local community and workforce: “For decades, Shippingport has been defined by powering the country as the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy,” Erickson said. “Project Phoenix honors that legacy, opening a new chapter by taking a historic site and rebuilding it into a modern engine of innovation. By creating thousands of jobs and sustainable career pathways for the next generation, this is far more than an infrastructure project - it is a profound investment in our community’s future.”

The Shippingport Industrial Park was previously home to the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant. Owned and operated by FirstEnergy (later Energy Harbor Corp), the 2.49GW coal plant launched in 1976 and shut down in 2019. Frontier Group bought the site in 2022 from Energy Harbor and last year said it would be developing a 2.7GW natural gas plant at the site, served by EQT Corporation and National Fuel Gas Company. In total, Frontier said the site will be able to offer up to 3.6GW of behind-the-meter capacity.

Aligned has campuses in Illinois, Texas, Utah, Arizona, and Northern Virginia. The company has further sites in development in Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia.

Macquarie Asset Management sold Aligned to a consortium comprising the AI Infrastructure Partnership (AIP), MGX, and BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) last year for $40bn.