Project dossier · Shippingport (Beaver County), Pennsylvania

Aligned Shippingport (Project Phoenix) In review

Nearly 2M sq ft, ~$10B natural-gas-powered data center campus on the former Bruce Mansfield coal plant site; land deal ($223.15M) closed July 29, 2026.

Key facts

Operator: Aligned Data Centers
Owner: Frontier Group of Companies
Size: 651 ac
Location: Shippingport (Beaver County), Pennsylvania
Stage today: In review

Source

What to do next

Next step: An application is in the record. Ask the planning office for the next hearing date and request formal notice.

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What has happened so far (17 events)

2022-01-01coverage
Frontier Group acquired the former Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant site (660 acres) from Energy Harbor Corp, cleared coal piles, and began marketing the property as Shippingport Industrial Park. · source
2025-01-01filing
Shippingport Borough solicitor began drafting the borough initial data-center zoning ordinance in anticipation of large-scale proposals at the former Bruce Mansfield site. · source
2025-03-01vote
Shippingport Borough Council passed a new data-center zoning ordinance establishing use and permitting rules ahead of Aligned formal application. · source
2025-08-01coverage
A Vistra subsidiary purchased a 74-acre farm in nearby Hookstown for $4.2 million, underscoring the broader wave of AI/data-center-driven land acquisition around Shippingport and Beaver Valley. · source
2025-09-01public-comment
Residents and officials raised transparency concerns about Frontier Group plans at a Shippingport borough meeting, prompting Gov. Shapiro to later say too many such projects have been shrouded in secrecy. · source
2025-10-01financing
BlackRock led a roughly $40 billion deal to acquire Aligned Data Centers, the developer behind the proposed Shippingport Project Phoenix campus. · source
2025-12-05filing
Aligned Data Centers filed a conditional-use application with Shippingport Borough for Project Phoenix on the former Bruce Mansfield power plant site. · source
2025-12-15hearing
Aligned held its first public information meeting in Shippingport to present Project Phoenix to residents; a company representative apologized for confusion surrounding the proposal. · source
2026-01-28vote
Shippingport Borough Council approved most of Aligned conditional-use permit for up to three data center buildings totaling roughly 2 million square feet plus an on-site natural gas power plant; only about four residents attended. · source
2026-02-05announcement
Coverage detailed Aligned roughly $10 billion Shippingport Industrial Park campus plan on the ~660-acre former Bruce Mansfield site, with conditional use permits approved and the project in pre-construction planning. · source
2026-02-08coverage
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Beaver Valley becoming a regional data-center target, noting Aligned natural gas plan alongside a separate Vistra-Meta power purchase agreement tied to the Beaver Valley nuclear plant. · source
2026-02-09report
Detailed site-plan figures: 593 acres, three two-story buildings up to 59 feet tall (1.95 million sq ft combined), a 70-acre natural gas power-generation pad, and 250 parking spaces; six parcels still needed acquisition. · source
2026-02-09permit
Aligned/Frontier applied for mass grading, NPDES, and stormwater permits plus variances for 59-ft building height, up to 75% woodland clearing, 65-dB operational noise limits, and round-the-clock construction noise. · source
2026-02-09utility
Frontier Group plan to convert adjacent former Bruce Mansfield coal units to natural gas generation (up to 3.6 GW, ~$3.2 billion via EQT and National Fuel Gas) cited as the eventual power source for the Aligned campus. · source
2026-02-09public-comment
Mixed local reaction: some welcomed jobs while Beaver County economic development president cautioned that blindly chasing data centers is not the way to go; residents cited property-value and mine-subsidence concerns. · source
2026-06-25vote
Pennsylvania House voted 197-5 to pass HB 2198 repealing the state Computer Data Center Equipment sales-tax incentive program, projected to cost $188.4 million in FY2026-27 growing to $517 million by 2030. · source
2026-07-29financing
Aligned Data Centers closed its purchase of 650.89 acres in Shippingport from Frontier Group for $223,150,865 to build its nearly 2-million-square-foot data center campus. · source

Find the paper trail

Find the paper trail (1 filed · 11 places to look)

Permits already on file (1)

Filings we have a source for — the record, not a place to look for one.

2026-02-09
Aligned/Frontier applied for mass grading, NPDES, and stormwater permits plus variances for 59-ft building height, up to 75% woodland clearing, 65-dB operational noise limits, and round-the-clock construction noise. · source

State environmental permits

Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.

Pennsylvania DEPThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
DEP Data Center Permit Tracker (the only state register built for data centers — it already feeds this tracker)Searchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.

County & town filings

The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.

Search Shippingport (Beaver County) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
Search Shippingport (Beaver County) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.

Utility & grid records

The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.

PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.

Federal databases

Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.

EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site.
EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.

These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.

Around here

Pennsylvania briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Pennsylvania

4-3 Salem Township Data Center — Salem Township (Luzerne County) Rumored
900 Conshohocken Road data center (former Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill) — Plymouth Township (Montgomery County) Awaiting decision
AWS Berwick — Berwick Under construction
AWS Falls Township campus (Keystone Trade Center) — Falls Township (Bucks County) Approved
AWS Salem Township campus (Susquehanna nuclear plant) — Salem Township (Luzerne County) Under construction

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Aligned Shippingport (Project Phoenix)”, aigridwatch.com/projects/aligned-shippingport-pa, retrieved 2026-10-11.

As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing

A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.

Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).