The Tennessee Valley Authority and Deloitte Consulting have approved TVA’s first metro-area primary data center site in the Corridor Park in Knoxville.
TVA hired Chicago-based Deloitte Consulting to identify and evaluate locations for data centers in the seven-state TVA service area. Deloitte’s study found the 10.6-acre site in Knoxville is readily accessible, has a strong telecommunications infrastructure and availability of reliable electricity - all criteria for a primary site for a data center company.
To be considered a metro site, the location must have at least 10 acres, a minimum of five megawatts of power capacity and diverse fiber optic feeds available.
Knoxville is one of only 20 available data center sites designated as “primary ready for development” in the TVA service area.
The selection process is part of TVA’s Economic Development target industry recruitment efforts.
“Having this site identified as a primary data center location gives the Knox County area an advantage in the highly competitive site selection process,” said John Bradley, TVA senior vice president for Economic Development. “We are glad to work with the Knoxville Chamber, local utilities and other community, state and regional leaders to actively market these sites to companies as part of our global economic development recruitment efforts.”
Doug Lawyer, vice president of economic development for the Knoxville Chamber, believes the designation will be a useful recruiting tool for the area.
“I look forward to touting the advantages of the Knoxville site to intensive capital investment and high wage prospective data center end users,” Mr. Lawyer said. “Thanks to TVA and my local utility and development partners for helping us along in this process.”
For more information about Knoxville Chamber’s economic development efforts, visit www.knoxvillechamber.com.
For more information about the Knoxville data center site, visit www.TVAsites.com. Learn more about all the current primary data center sites in the TVA region at www.TVAed.com/datacenters.