STAK Energy North Slope Campus In review
$500M, up to 3GW natural-gas-powered AI data center campus on 715 leased acres ~26 mi south of Deadhorse; received preliminary state land-lease approval, construction targeted summer 2026.
Key facts
- Operator
- STAK Energy
- Size
- 3,000 MW
- Acres
- 715
- Location
- North Slope Borough, Alaska
- Stage today
- In review
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.
What has happened so far (12 events)
- 2025-11-01filing
Stak Energy submitted its initial application to Alaska DNR Division of Oil and Gas for a 50-year state land lease (ADL 422741) covering 715.4 acres off the Dalton Highway near Milepost 390 for a natural-gas-powered AI data center campus; DNR solicited competing bids and none came in. · source - 2026-03-12filing
Stak Energy filed a revised application amending its original lease submission to the Division of Oil and Gas. · source - 2026-05-12ruling
Alaska DNR issued a preliminary best-interest finding for the proposed 50-year land lease to Stak Energy, granting preliminary approval for the 715-acre parcel. · source - 2026-05-14coverage
Alaska Beacon broke the story of the proposed $500 million, up-to-3GW natural-gas-powered Stak Energy data center campus on the North Slope. · source - 2026-05-18coverage
Anchorage Daily News expanded coverage detailing the 715-acre footprint, dry-air cooling advantage, and lack of a firm natural-gas supply deal at time of filing. · source - 2026-05-26coverage
Alaska Public Media reported on the proposal, noting Stak Energy Alaska roots and staffing plans. · source - 2026-05-28report
Northern Alaska Environmental Center published an analysis of the lease documents identifying unresolved risks: incomplete wetland delineation, no permafrost thermal modeling, no bird/caribou surveys, undisclosed lease financial terms, and estimated gas consumption of 128-183 billion cubic feet per year. · source - 2026-06-01environmental
The Alaska Center publicized environmental concerns including potential heat-island warming effects extending up to 6.2 miles, the need for 7 million cubic yards of gravel to raise the site 5-7 feet, and fuel consumption potentially exceeding twice urban Alaska electrical generation; urged residents to file public comments. · source - 2026-06-15public-comment
Original public comment deadline on the DNR preliminary best-interest decision for the Stak Energy lease. · source - 2026-07-03protest
Coverage reported Alaskans had flooded the state comment docket with opposition, including submissions reading "HELL NO! To ANY DATA CENTERS" and "NO AI," ahead of the extended comment deadline. · source - 2026-07-07report
Anchorage Daily News reported more than 500 public comments submitted to DNR, with fewer than a dozen supporting the project and the vast majority opposed; Stak Energy characterized most as form letters. · source - 2026-07-17public-comment
Extended deadline (4:30 p.m.) for public comments on the proposed 50-year land lease; DNR said it would assess comments before issuing a final lease decision. · 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.
- Alaska DEC — Division of Air QualityThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- Search Alaska DEC — Division of Air Quality for this projectsearchThis state publishes no searchable permit database, so a written records request to the agency is the reliable route. Use this search only to find the right office.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search North Slope Borough 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 North Slope Borough 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.
- No organised market covers this statenoteThere is no public queue to read. The record is the utility's integrated resource plan and its filings at the PUC — plus FERC eLibrary for anything federally docketed.
- Regulatory Commission of Alaska — 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
- Alaska briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “STAK Energy North Slope Campus”, aigridwatch.com/projects/stak-energy-north-slope-ak, 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).