US renewable energy developer Geronimo Power is looking to develop a data center in Nobles County, Minnesota.

According to local reports, the Nobles County Planning Commission held a work session with the power producer to discuss the potential development of a data center in the county.

While Geronimo has yet to identify a specific site in the county, it has indicated its interest in using its renewable energy portfolio to power a data center. A significant factor in this decision, the company has said, is the energy curtailment prevalent across the County, which leads to energy waste.

Geronimo has approximately 2.8GW of wind and solar generation in operation and or under construction in Minnesota.

"By bringing load into the area, it would pull out some power, allowing the rest to get into the system," Jordan Burmeister, senior director of development at Geronimo Power, said. "We're trying to take this area from a grid strain to a grid strength area."

According to reports, the site would ultimately be sold to an end user who would operate the data center. Burmeister stated that when selecting the site, the company would look for access to critical resources, including electrical infrastructure, access to generation and transmission, water, labor for both construction and operations, fiber, roads, and a supportive community partner.

If the data center goes ahead, the company will seek to purchase a parcel of land for a 400-500MW data center. Burmeister earmarked a location within the Summit Lake, Elk, Bloom, and Seward townships. He went on to state that the Lime Creek and Plum Creek wind farms, as well as the proposed Summit Lake Solar Farm near Reading, could power the data center. Combined, the sites would produce around 1.5GW of power. However, due to the intermittent nature of the energy sources, it seems likely that the data center will require a grid connection or firm baseload power source.

Geronimo said it plans to commence an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR), including working with the county to evaluate project scenarios. The company plans to begin the AUAR process before the end of the year, if the County provides consent. Burmeister went on to state that if the comprehensive plan and the AUAR are aligned, the company could secure an end user for the data center as soon as 2027.

"Ultimately, 2030 would be the target (completion) if it was a 400MW data center," he said.

The company, formerly known as Geronimo Energy, was founded in 2004 and acquired by National Grid Ventures in 2019. It rebranded as Geronimo Power in May 2025. The company has an operating capacity of more than 2GW, and has an additional 1GW under construction, as well as a development pipeline of more than 20GW.

Minnesota has not traditionally had a large data center market. At present, the major players in the state include DataBank, Colognix, T5, and LightEdge, which have operations in Minneapolis. However, recently several major firms have announced plans to expand into the region. This includes CloudHQ, which is planning a large campus near Chaska, as well as Microsoft and AWS, which are planning data centers in Becker, the latter being a $1 billion campus.