Aligned Data Centers broke ground on “Project Phoenix,” a planned 2 gigawatt data-center campus in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, 10 September 2026, according to the company’s press release opened for this pack. The campus is described as three facilities in the Shippingport Industrial Park, adjacent to the Shippingport Power Station — a former coal plant being redeveloped into an advanced natural-gas energy campus. Soft FLAG: “anchoring an estimated $10 billion in regional economic investment” is company economic framing, not an independent investment census.
The mechanism Aligned emphasises is dedicated onsite power plus closed-loop cooling. The company says Project Phoenix will use its own dedicated onsite power source rather than the local electrical grid, and that once completed the associated energy project is expected to deliver substantial excess power capacity back to the grid for PJM-region consumers. Soft FLAG: excess-power-to-grid timing and magnitude are company expectations, not a dated interconnection filing summarised here. Soft FLAG: each data center is engineered to require zero water for operational cooling via an advanced closed-loop system that continuously recycles pure deionized water, with a water footprint the company compares to a standard commercial office building — company engineering and marketing comparison. Soft FLAG: Green Globes certification is described as being pursued, not yet awarded.
Named actors and jobs, as the release states them: Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned, framed the project as revitalising a dormant industrial site and said Aligned supports Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) requirements and is a signatory of a Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Soft FLAG: GRID/pledge language is company policy alignment framing. Beth Lowry, CEO of Holder Construction, and Brett Burgett, CEO of Kokosing, are quoted as construction partners. Shippingport Mayor John Erickson linked the campus to the borough’s history as the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy and to new jobs. Soft FLAG: employment figures — an estimated 3,000 construction jobs and an estimated 640 full-time careers for ongoing campus operations, plus “thousands of indirect jobs” — are company estimates, not payroll audits. Soft FLAG: “new government revenue annually for Beaver County” is company fiscal colour without a published dollar figure in the release.
Schaap’s release also ties the campus to protecting energy affordability for ratepayers by keeping the data-center load on dedicated onsite generation rather than pulling from local distribution — Soft FLAG: that ratepayer-protection claim is company framing under the GRID / Ratepayer Protection Pledge language, not a published tariff study. Holder Construction and Kokosing are named as partners bringing local trades to the build. Soft FLAG: “model for how advanced digital infrastructure can sustainably fuel regional economies” and similar CEO phrasing are company narrative. Soft FLAG: single primary (Aligned release); no independent local paper opened this pass for cross-check of job or investment figures.
What to watch without mood: dated construction or energisation milestones for the three facilities; any PJM or Pennsylvania utility filing that quantifies dedicated onsite capacity and excess exports; Green Globes outcome if pursued to certification.
Floor: Aligned Project Phoenix GB 10 Sep — 2 GW campus, three facilities at Shippingport; dedicated onsite power (co.); ~3,000 construction / ~640 ops jobs (co. estimates); closed-loop / zero ops cooling-water draw (co.).