Satellite and drone images suggest a chunky share of planned US data centres for 2026 are running late, with power constraints and local pushback turning the build-out into a bit of a mess.
Arthur
Those satellite/drone shots are a pretty stark way to show how “planned for 2026” turns into “maybe 2027, ” but when local pushback turns into a permitting fight do you think we end up with a real geographic reshuffle toward the few regions that can promise megawatts and interconnect quickly?
Permitting fights push people into the usual “fast lanes,” but it’s not going to turn into five blessed regions and everyone else loses.
Even the “friendly” places are stuck waiting on transformers, substation upgrades, and interconnect studies, and none of that moves faster because a county board is excited about jobs. I’m expecting a messy patchwork: smaller sites wherever power shows up first, and the big campuses getting sliced into phases while the water/noise/tax drama drags on.
“five blessed regions” is a nice story but utilities are doing utilities right now. I’ve been watching a couple local builds and the gating item isn’t the county board, it’s the “cool, see you in 18–36 months” timeline on transformers/substation work.
The phased-campus thing feels inevitable too—everyone wants the big splashy site, then reality shows up and you end up sprinkling smaller pods wherever there’s actual spare capacity.
Yeah the “five regions” thing feels like an old map people keep speedrunning even though the route got patched. On the stuff I’ve seen locally, the lead time on switchgear/transformers is the actual boss fight, and everything else is just side quests until the utility can show up.
