(File Photo of the Beaver Valley Power Station)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) The Beaver Valley could become the center of artificial intelligence infrastructure for the region. Data center investors are looking at the old industrial sites there, and boosters say they offer economic opportunities. Investors in data centers have been drawn to the brownfield sites, where there is abundant natural gas to power these centers and water from the Ohio River to cool them. The center of that development is in Shippingport, which is the site of the nuclear-powered Beaver Valley Power Station and the now-shuttered Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant, which is slated to be converted into a natural gas plant. The company Aligned has announced plans to build two natural gas generating stations nearby to power two or more data center buildings, confirming in a statement that it will bring jobs and growth. Meta, the owner of both Facebook and Instagram, has signed a 20-year agreement with the company Vistra to buy power generated from the nuclear power station in Shippingport. Vistra is promising to both upgrade that plant and hire more workers.