Data Center Registry

Sanford Woods Data Center

Sanford, York County, Maine

ProposedNo reception on recordRecord updated October 4, 2026

Sanford Woods Data Center is a proposed data center in Sanford, Maine (York County), operated by New England Energy. The public record puts it at announced February 2026, 1,060 acres.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Proposed

Operator: New England Energy
Facility type: Data center
Location: Sanford, York County, ME
Coordinates: 43.4387, -70.7746 (approximate)
Power capacity: Not established from a public source
Land: 1,060 acres
Investment: Not established from a public source
Announced: February 2026
Utility: Not established from a public source
Power source: Mixed
Cooling: Not established from a public source
Water use: 0.3 million gallons a day, reported
Jobs: Not established from a public source
Public subsidy: Not established from a public source
Community reception: No reception on record
Source confidence: Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing

Opposition and litigation at this site

Nothing on record as of October 4, 2026. No lawsuit, organized opposition, or contested hearing over Sanford Woods Data Center in Sanford, York County, Maine appears in the sources this registry tracks. That is an absence in our sources rather than a finding that none exists, and local opposition often predates any coverage a national dataset would pick up.

If you live near this site and something is happening that this page does not show, that is worth telling us. Send us the document and it goes in the record with the source attached. For sites where opposition is already established, see every contested site we track.

Power and water

Planned to be powered off-grid by on-site generation: a hydrogen fuel-cell plant (initially natural gas, transitioning to hydrogen within ~5 years) plus solar.

Developer stated a maximum of 300,000 gallons/day of water usage for the full campus (not isolated to the data center).

Notes on the record

Reported capacity range is 100-300 MW (not a firm committed figure; omitted from the capacity figure pending a formal filing). Proposed as one component of the 1,060-acre 'Sanford Woods Industrial and Technical Campus' in south Sanford, bisected by the Mousam River, on land owned since 1975 by the Gibbs family's New England Energy (Randy Gibbs, founder of Multifuels of Houston, TX; co-developer Walt Bussells). Co-located with a planned 300 MW hydrogen fuel-cell power plant (tracked separately as new-england-energy-sanford-woods-power-me), a 50-acre industrial greenhouse, and a cold-storage facility. Cumulative campus investment reported at ~$2.16 billion with ~100 long-term jobs campus-wide -- both figures span the whole campus, not the data center alone, so they are not recorded as this facility's the investment figure/jobs. Disclosed to the Maine Legislature's Energy and Utilities Committee in February 2026; marketing, partner selection, financing and permitting expected to take ~2 years. Maine's 2026 data-center moratorium debate would allow continued groundwork but block new construction permits before 2028.

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

Power capacity in megawatts
Tax abatements or other public subsidy
Permanent jobs promised
How the community has received it
Which utility serves it

Which document closes each gap

Power capacity in megawatts: The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
Tax abatements or other public subsidy: The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
Permanent jobs promised: The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
How the community has received it: Planning commission and governing body minutes, public comment records, and any petition or lawsuit filed in the county.
Which utility serves it: The electric service agreement or the utility's filing with the state public utility commission.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

FirstLight Portsmouth, NH Data Center · Portsmouth · FirstLight25 mi · Operating
Liberty Mutual Portsmouth Data Center · Portsmouth · Liberty Mutual26 mi · Operating
CENTRA Digital Interconnect -- 340 Cumberland (PMW01) · Portland · CENTRA Digital Interconnect30 mi · Operating · 1 MW

Tell us about your situation

Living near Sanford Woods Data Center?

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Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Sanford Woods Data Center in Sanford?

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Sanford Woods Data Center?

No lawsuit over Sanford Woods Data Center appears in the record we track as of October 4, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.

How much water does Sanford Woods Data Center use?

0.3 million gallons a day is the reported figure on record. Developer stated a maximum of 300,000 gallons/day of water usage for the full campus (not isolated to the data center).

Who operates Sanford Woods Data Center, and how big is it?

New England Energy is the operator on record. No capacity figure is on record for this site. The site is recorded at 1060 acres.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Sanford Woods Data Center," updated October 4, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/new-england-energy-sanford-woods-dc-me.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.34.1 (October 4, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/new-england-energy-sanford-woods-dc-me, retrieved October 11, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

1.Company eyes Sanford site for data center · Sanford Spring Vale News · retrieved October 4, 2026
2.Data center could pump $2 billion into city · Sanford Spring Vale News · retrieved October 4, 2026

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