Project River Proposes $11.3 Billion Data Center and Power Campus

Key Takeaways

• Project River proposes an $11.3 billion industrial campus in Bradley County, with construction phased over about five years and an estimated 2,600 jobs.
• Plans include a large-scale data center, a 1,000 MW gas plant, a 500 MW biomass plant, and a requested 360 MW connection to the TVA grid.
• The project reflects a broader shift toward pairing data centers with dedicated generation as AI computing increases electricity demand.

Project River is putting power infrastructure at the center of its proposed $11.3 billion industrial campus in Bradley County, Tennessee. The development concept combines a large-scale data center with on-site electricity generation, potentially making it one of the largest private investments in East Tennessee.

Developers estimate that Project River could create 2,600 jobs, with construction proceeding in phases over about five years. Those projections give local officials a substantial economic development case. Yet the scale of the power facilities, and residents’ concerns about transparency, are likely to keep land use, environmental effects, infrastructure costs, and public oversight in focus as the proposal moves forward.

The power plan is unusually large even by data center standards. Local reporting says the concept includes a 1,000 MW natural gas plant and a 500 MW biomass plant. Project River has also requested a 360 MW connection to the TVA grid for backup supply and periods of peak demand.

That combination suggests the campus would not treat the electric grid as its sole source of energy. Instead, Project River could operate as a partly self-supplied industrial system, while retaining grid access for resilience and operational flexibility. Wright Brothers Construction is among the named organizations associated with the proposal.

Electricity availability has become one of the defining constraints on data center development. Computing hardware can be procured, buildings can be constructed, and fiber routes can be expanded. Securing dependable power at gigawatt scale is often more complicated, especially when utilities are already planning for demand from manufacturing, transportation electrification, and population growth.

The numbers explain the urgency. Gartner projects that global data center electricity consumption will reach 565 TWh in 2026, up from 447 TWh in 2025. AI-oriented facilities are taking an increasing share because dense accelerator clusters consume substantial power and produce heat that cooling systems then need to remove.

Meanwhile, the IEA reports global data-centre electricity demand rose 17% in 2025 and is set to roughly double by 2030. Electricity use from AI-focused data centres is expected to triple over the same period. For developers, that outlook changes site selection. A parcel with fiber and available land may no longer be viable if the regional grid cannot support the intended computing load on a workable timeline.

Project River’s proposed generation mix also raises practical questions. How will a biomass plant of this size source and transport enough material over time? Supporters have positioned the project as an opportunity to revive regional logging activity, but the eventual fuel contracts, emissions controls, traffic effects, and supply radius would shape its economic and environmental profile.

Natural gas introduces a different set of considerations, including pipeline capacity, fuel-price exposure, air permits, and long-term emissions. On-site gas generation can provide dispatchable electricity, but its commercial value depends on plant utilization, interconnection arrangements, and the data center’s service expectations.

The wider capacity race is moving quickly. S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts that U.S. data center capacity will grow from 62,242 MW in March 2026 to 151,734 MW by 2030. Project River therefore sits within a national contest among regions that can assemble land, transmission access, generation, water strategies, fiber connectivity, and local approvals.

Technology architecture forms the foundation of these facilities. A campus at this scale would likely depend on high-capacity networking based on the IEEE 802.3 family of Ethernet standards. Security architecture could draw on NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust principles, particularly for identity controls, segmented environments, operational technology, and third-party access. Cybersecurity, physical operations, and power controls increasingly overlap inside modern data center campuses.

Project River remains a proposal rather than a completed investment. Job estimates, generating capacity, construction phases, and the eventual computing tenant mix will depend on approvals, financing, infrastructure agreements, and execution. For Bradley County, the opportunity is sizable. So is the scrutiny warranted by a campus whose energy footprint could rival that of major industrial operations.