From Soot to Servers: Paving the way for Digital Age by using US Coal Power Plant Brownfields

Roland Berger is a European consultancy highly active in the topic of coal powerplant transformation. This project aims to analyze the existing coal powerplants in the US and identify those that are the most suitable for retirement and replacement by a data center. In line with the previous RB-SIPA capstone, Roland Berger wishes to show that the early retirement of coal powerplants, when done in the right way, can generate more jobs, more tax revenues, competitive electricity prices, and more value for electric utilities and other stakeholders - on top of the environmental benefits. In this context, data centers that are seeking to connect to the grid could use a retired powerplant’s brownfield to accelerate their interconnection to the grid. This Capstone will focus on the case when data centers connect to the grid – not use the coal powerplant for behind- the-meter generation, as this does not present the same environmental benefits.