Arizona

~120 facilities7% of facilities tracked here

The headline number

120+

facilities in a state whose Colorado River allocation was just cut, the sharpest siting paradox in the country

Water stress

Severe: Phoenix sits in a structural Colorado River deficit with groundwater pumping limits; evaporative cooling is maximally effective and maximally contested here.

The local story

Phoenix's east and west valleys (Mesa, Chandler, Goodyear) drew Microsoft, Meta, Google and Apple campuses for the same reasons chips fabs came: cheap power, dry air, low seismic risk. Dry air is the catch: evaporative cooling works brilliantly and costs the most where water is scarcest.

The flashpoints are documented: Mesa approved Google's campus with council members openly debating whether millions of gallons a day was an acceptable trade; Goodyear's agreement with Microsoft included funding for city water infrastructure. Several newer permits require dry cooling above specified temperatures.

Arizona is also where 'follow the grid' matters most: Palo Verde nuclear plant (the country's largest, cooled with reclaimed wastewater) supplies much of the load, a genuinely lower-water electricity mix than the US average. Low vs Mid scenarios diverge unusually far here.

Cite this pagev1.3.1 · 2026-09

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