An energy company focused on natural gas is moving into data center development.
New Fortress Energy Inc. this week announced the launch of Klondike Digital Infrastructure, a power and data center development business to build and operate data centers for hyperscale clients.
New Fortress said the projects would rely on behind-the-meter, on-site power. Founded in 2014, the Nasdaq-listed company specializes in liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants.
The company said it is developing a “geographically diverse portfolio of data center sites,” and has more than 1,000 acres of developable land across sites in Brazil, Ireland, and the United States.
New Fortress said these locations have large existing power plants or permits in progress to build “several gigawatts” of power, connectivity to fiber networks, and access to transmission and water.
“Power and infrastructure are the bottleneck of the AI race. With the rapid development of AI and the accompanying explosive growth in power demand, we are building larger-scale data center solutions to accommodate the needs of our hyperscale clients. And because we produce our own power, we can provide certainty to our customers more quickly than our competitors,” said Wes Edens, CEO and Founder of Klondike and chairman and CEO of New Fortress Energy.
In Ireland, the company is developing a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal located on the Shannon Estuary between Tarbert and Ballylongford in County Kerry, offering 600 acres with 400MW of capacity in Shannon – with another 300 acres and 200MW available in the future.
In the US, New Fortress Energy is developing LNG liquefiers that will be deployed 16 nautical miles off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. It recently sold a Miami LNG site to a US-based fund. Details of its US data center plans haven’t been shared yet.
In Brazil, the company launched its Barcarena LNG terminal in the north of the country earlier this year; it is building a 1.6GW power plant there, and also launched its Santa Catarina LNG terminal in the south this year. It is further aiming to develop a 100-acre data center site in São Paulo with up to 2GW of capacity.
New Fortress also has operations in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
LNG terminals have been proposed for data center sites for some time, as they provide a very large source of natural cooling when liquified natural gas at -160C is regasified. The idea has yet to be delivered in practice, although Singapore is the furthest advanced in plans for data centers at LNG terminals. Among the possible objections are the fact that LNG terminals are sites of potential fire risk, and (because of that risk) are normally sited away from population centers.
