Project dossier · Salem Township (Luzerne County), Pennsylvania

AWS Salem Township campus (Susquehanna nuclear plant) Under construction

One of two initial sites in Amazon's announced $20B+ Pennsylvania data-center investment: a campus alongside the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear plant, where majority owner Talen Energy agreed to supply 960 MW. The original behind-the-meter connection drew FERC scrutiny and was blocked in 2024. The 960 MW figure is the contracted power supply, not built capacity.

Key facts

Operator: Amazon (AWS)
Owner: Amazon (AWS)
Tenant: Amazon (AWS)
Size: 960 MW
Location: Salem Township (Luzerne County), Pennsylvania
First proposed: 2025-06-09
Stage today: Under construction

Source
read 2026-08-14

What to do next

Next step: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.

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What has happened so far (14 events)

2024-03-06announcement
Talen Energy disclosed in an investor presentation that AWS acquired the 1,200-acre Cumulus data center campus co-located with the Susquehanna nuclear plant for $650 million ($350M at closing, $300M escrowed pending zoning milestones), with plans to develop up to 960 MW. · source
2024-05-28rezoning
Salem Township supervisors voted to rezone approximately 1,582 acres into a new industrial Special Data Center Overlay District, enabling AWS to build up to 15 data center buildings; the township also agreed to a 10-year LERTA tax break at a 70 percent discount for Amazon. · source
2024-06-03filing
PJM Interconnection filed with FERC for an amended interconnection service agreement to increase behind-the-meter power delivery from the Susquehanna nuclear plant to the co-located AWS data center from 300 MW to 480 MW. · source
2024-06-24filing
American Electric Power and Exelon filed a protest with FERC challenging the amended ISA, arguing the co-location deal could shift up to $140 million in annual transmission costs onto other PJM ratepayers. · source
2024-08-23financing
Talen Energy announced that the $300 million escrowed portion of the Cumulus campus purchase price was released after completion of zoning milestones allowing development of the AWS campus to 960 MW. · source
2024-11-01ruling
FERC voted 2-1 to reject the amended interconnection service agreement that would have increased behind-the-meter power from Susquehanna to the AWS data center from 300 MW to 480 MW, finding PJM failed to justify the departure from its standard agreement. · source
2024-12-23filing
FERC issued an order deferring Talen Energy's November 20, 2024 rehearing request on the Susquehanna ISA rejection, stating it would address the request in a future order. · source
2025-01-16lawsuit
Talen Energy filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit challenging FERC's November 2024 order rejecting the behind-the-meter interconnection agreement for the AWS data center at Susquehanna. · source
2025-04-10ruling
FERC upheld its rejection of the amended interconnection service agreement between PJM and Susquehanna Nuclear on rehearing, reaffirming its November 2024 order blocking expanded behind-the-meter power sales to the AWS data center. · source
2025-06-01coverage
Spotlight PA reported in June 2025 that Amazon's data centers qualify for Pennsylvania's sales tax exemption on data center equipment (enacted 2016, expanded 2021), with the state projecting $43 million in lost revenue for fiscal year 2025-26; critics noted no mandatory reporting of exempt transaction costs. · source
2025-06-09announcement
Amazon and Gov. Shapiro announced at least $20 billion for data center campuses in Pennsylvania, with initial sites in Salem Township (alongside the Susquehanna nuclear plant, with Talen Energy agreeing to provide 960 MW) and Falls Township, creating at least 1,250 permanent jobs. · source
2025-06-11financing
Talen Energy and Amazon finalized a restructured 17-year, $18 billion power purchase agreement supplying up to 1,920 MW from Susquehanna via a grid-connected front-of-meter retail structure, bypassing the rejected behind-the-meter model; deliveries to ramp to 840-1,200 MW by 2029 and 1,680-1,920 MW by 2032. · source
2025-10-01filing
FERC argued in an October 2025 brief to the Fifth Circuit that Talen's lawsuit should be dismissed as moot because the company had already contracted to abandon the behind-the-meter co-location arrangement at issue in the appeal. · source
2026-03-25construction
QTS (owned by Blackstone) completed acquisition of approximately 1,700 acres from 96 Salem Township landowners for over $500 million, planning a 12-to-17 building data center campus adjacent to the AWS site using water-free cooling technology. · source

Find the paper trail

Find the paper trail (0 filed · 11 places to look)

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 Salem Township (Luzerne 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 Salem Township (Luzerne 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. This project's locality centres on 41.060, -76.200 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
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), 1 mi Rumored
QTS Salem — Salem Township (Luzerne County), 2 mi In review
AWS Berwick — Berwick, 2 mi Under construction
Nescopeck / Valley View Wood Data Center — Nescopeck Township (Luzerne County), 2 mi Rumored
Outrigger Data Center — Mifflin Township (Columbia County), 6 mi Rumored

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “AWS Salem Township campus (Susquehanna nuclear plant)”, aigridwatch.com/projects/aws-salem-township-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).