{"id":81,"date":"2026-05-14T18:09:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:09:38","slug":"a-huge-data-center-could-rise-on-alaskas-north-slope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=81","title":{"rendered":"A huge data center could rise on Alaska\u2019s North Slope"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One of the largest data centers in the nation has been proposed on Alaska\u2019s Arctic North Slope, where boosters say it could take advantage of abundant land, cold temperatures for cooling and a huge supply of natural gas for power.<\/p>\n

Read more Alaska lawmakers raise concerns with Dunleavy\u2019s attorney general pick ahead of confirmation vote<\/a><\/p>\n

The $500 million development would occupy an entire square mile with multiple buildings in a remote area off the Dalton Highway, some 25 miles south of the North Slope\u2019s major infrastructure. That\u2019s according to documents released this week by the state, which on Tuesday issued a preliminary decision to lease the property to the project\u2019s operator.<\/p>\n

A newly built pipeline would carry natural gas to fuel the data center\u2019s power plant \u2014\u00a0which, according to the documents, could use more than twice as much of the fuel as urban Alaska consumes for electrical generation and home and commercial heating. The project could ultimately produce up to three gigawatts of power for its own use, making it competitive with some of the largest data centers under development in the Lower 48.<\/p>\n

The company behind the project is Stak Energy, which last year proposed a far smaller project more narrowly focused on digital mining of cryptocurrency. It now says it plans to support \u201clarge-scale AI and cloud computing operations,\u201d including training of large-scale machine learning models and high-performance scientific and analytical computing. <\/p>\n

The company in November proposed its lease to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, which subsequently published a notice to solicit competing bids. None came in, so the department is now proceeding with the leasing process, with a public comment period<\/u> on the preliminary decision open through June 15.<\/p>\n

Stak has not disclosed who would finance its new project, though it previously said it was raising money from Anchorage firm McKinley Alaska Private Investment.<\/p>\n

Stak has expanded significantly in recent months, making a number of politically connected hires including Gov. Mike Dunleavy\u2019s former natural resources commissioner, John Boyle, and a former special assistant at the natural resources department, Jim Shine.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s founder and chief executive, Sparrow Mahoney, grew up in Alaska and attended Wasilla High School.<\/p>\n

Stak officials declined to respond to specific questions about its proposal. But the company\u00a0shared a prepared statement that describes itself as having \u201cdeep Alaska roots, built on decades of combined experience across the state\u2019s energy and infrastructure landscape \u2014 and proud to help build Alaska\u2019s next era of prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lease application, the company said, \u201creflects an important milestone for anchoring Alaska as America\u2019s at-scale energy solution \u2014 a meaningful step toward bringing opportunity, jobs, and revenue home to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStak Energy is committed to responsible development, expanding opportunity, and contributing to a more diverse and resilient Alaskan economy,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Energy experts said that Stak\u2019s lease application, released by the state, is thorough. But it also raises a number of questions.<\/p>\n

One is how quickly the company can secure the natural gas-powered turbines that it would use to generate electricity. Rising demand for those turbines, prompted by the rush to build new data centers and the overall expansion of natural gas-fired power, is leading to manufacturing backlogs as long as seven years<\/u>; Stak says it wants its initial operations to begin in 2028.<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s the question of where, exactly, Stak will get its natural gas supply.<\/p>\n

Alaska\u2019s North Slope oil fields contain huge deposits of natural gas. But historically, petroleum companies have almost exclusively extracted oil from those fields, as it\u2019s more energy-dense and can be shipped down the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline; minimal infrastructure exists to move North Slope natural gas to market.<\/p>\n

Read more Former North Pole legislator, owner of Santa-themed tourist spot named to Alaska Judicial Council<\/a><\/p>\n

Companies presumably would be willing to sell gas to a project like Stak\u2019s, according to Antony Scott, a former commercial petroleum analyst for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.<\/p>\n

But details of Stak\u2019s land lease application makes clear that at the time it was submitted, the company hadn\u2019t yet struck a firm deal for gas supply, he added.\u00a0Stak says its gas pipeline could run anywhere between 25 and 90 miles, which implies that it could connect to any number of different petroleum fields on the North Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means they don\u2019t have a gas supply,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

Scott added, though, that the project\u2019s remote location \u2014\u00a0and the fact that it wouldn\u2019t connect to Alaska\u2019s urban power grid and risk driving up demand and prices for electricity, like data centers have in the Lower 48 \u2014\u00a0help smooth the project\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of data centers and the effect on normal humanity\u2019s electricity bills is causing real angst,\u201d Scott said. On Alaska\u2019s North Slope, he added, \u201cwe avoid all of that. You can just step into this friendly environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stak\u2019s application and supporting material say its project has another leg up on Lower 48 developments.<\/p>\n

Outside projects have faced increasingly strident opposition in response to their enormous consumption of water for cooling. The company says in its lease application materials that its North Slope location is a \u201ccrucial design advantage\u201d because of an average annual temperature of 12F \u2014 allowing it to use air for cooling instead of depending on water.<\/p>\n

Air cooling, the company says, is expected to reduce water consumption by 90% or more, \u201ccompared to industry norms.\u201d Stak isn\u2019t proposing any formal use for the project\u2019s waste heat for now, but it says that \u201cpotential applications\u201d include keeping greenhouses warm or supporting aquaculture.<\/p>\n

One comparative disadvantage for Stak: It would be powering its computer infrastructure with fossil fuels. Some technology companies with carbon emissions targets are making efforts<\/u> to run their data centers on non-fossil energy like nuclear power, wind and solar, though other projects have also tapped into natural gas.<\/p>\n

Stak, in its application, says it\u2019s monitoring developments in technology that could allow it to capture and store its carbon emissions. But at least initially, a dearth of infrastructure and a lack of understanding of the region\u2019s geology for storing carbon are among the obstacles it faces, the company said.<\/p>\n

Dunleavy\u2019s administration, which has pushed to develop a data center industry in Alaska, has issued a preliminary, formal decision that the project is in the state\u2019s \u201cbest interest\u201d \u2014\u00a0a necessary step before it can issue the 50-year land lease that it\u2019s currently considering.<\/p>\n

The preliminary decision cites a peak construction workforce of 1,500 people, with some 60 permanent jobs that would be created by the project.<\/p>\n

Stak will have to complete additional permitting before the project can move forward \u2014\u00a0namely, a federal Clean Water Act authorization needed to create the company\u2019s gravel pad that will elevate its power plants and computer systems at least five feet off the tundra.<\/p>\n

The project would require an enormous amount of gravel \u2014 some 7 million cubic yards worth, according to the state leasing documents.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s nearly twice as much as petroleum company ConocoPhillips is authorized to use for its big Willow oil project, Stak says.<\/p>\n

Read more Alaska Senate committee advances draft capital budget, boosting funds for school maintenance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The $500 million data center project would be one of the nation’s largest and could consume twice as much natural gas as urban Alaska\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nA huge data center could rise on Alaska\u2019s North Slope - Moving to Alaska<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=81\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A huge data center could rise on Alaska\u2019s North Slope - Moving to Alaska\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The $500 million data center project would be one of the nation's largest and could consume twice as much natural gas as urban Alaska\u2019s grid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/?p=81\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving to Alaska\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-14T18:09:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingtoalaskausa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4a90d53b026207e96848cf8b96a689cc-1024x510.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a34ab8aa99bbfe6b285ea9b5fa35a5a\"},\"headline\":\"A huge data center could rise on Alaska\u2019s North Slope\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-14T18:09:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81\"},\"wordCount\":1212,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4a90d53b026207e96848cf8b96a689cc.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingtoalaskausa.com\\\/?p=81\",\"name\":\"A huge data center could rise on Alaska\u2019s North Slope - 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