• Energy developer Eolian has sold land and power infrastructure to CyrusOne for a 200 MW data center campus under construction in Fort Worth, Texas, marking what CEO Aaron Zubaty described as the first in a series of projects that aim to repurpose existing grid infrastructure for large-scale digital deployments.

  The new data center, dubbed DFW7, broke ground in April 2025. The site is adjacent to Chisholm Grid, a 100 MW battery energy storage facility Eolian developed and brought online in 2021. By leveraging the existing high-voltage substation and grid interconnects at the site, CyrusOne has significantly accelerated its time-to-market, with the first capacity expected to come online in 2026 in a high-demand data center market and a location close to the urban core.

  “We have an existing energy storage site that’s been running for five years,” Zubaty said in an interview. “We brought the data center operator there, and they are using our existing substation infrastructure so that they can come online many years faster than they would otherwise.”

  The deal includes the sale of land and the data center site development by Eolian, but not a power purchase agreement. “It’s not a PPA,” Zubaty said. He added that there is capacity to further expand at the site.

  Eolian will modernize and upgrade one of Texas’ earliest utility-scale battery energy storage systems as part of the transaction. The result is a data center campus that co-locates digital infrastructure with existing grid assets—an approach Eolian says it intends to replicate.

  “This is kind of the first time this has been done at this scale and that now already has a datacenter well under construction,” Zubaty said, adding: “There are many more sites like this in our portfolio because for more than a decade we have focused on project development in locations that are ideal for co-location.”

  Zubaty noted Eolian is well-capitalized to pursue this strategy given its balance sheet and backing from GIP, now part of BlackRock. CyrusOne is backed by GIP and KKR.

  The CEO emphasized the broader significance of the model, arguing that much of the US grid’s existing infrastructure is underutilized due to regulatory misalignment. “Using the existing transmission infrastructure, co-locating with existing power, is a far more cost-effective and speedy way to get a lot of this done,” he said. “The regulatory incentives of monopoly utilities are simply driven by building new infrastructure. They only make money by constructing new wires and plants, and unfortunately the reality of ratebase economics is that the more efficient use of what is already built and paid for doesn’t increase their earnings.”

  In a press release, CyrusOne emphasized the importance of accessing power quickly. “CyrusOne is accelerating time-to-market for our customers by working creatively with Eolian as an established energy project developer and operator with existing sites in locations that would be difficult to replicate,” CEO Eric Schwartz said.

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