Data Center Registry

Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy)

Underwood, McLean County, North Dakota

ProposedNo reception on recordRecord updated October 28, 2026

Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy) is a proposed data center in Underwood, North Dakota (McLean County), operated by Rainbow Energy Center. The public record puts it at 800 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: Rainbow Energy Center
Facility type: Data center
Location: Underwood, McLean County, ND
Coordinates: 47.3770, -101.1570 (approximate)
Power capacity: Not established from a public source
Land: 800 acres
Investment: Not established from a public source
Announced: Not established from a public source
Utility: Not established from a public source
Power source: Other
Cooling: Not established from a public source
Water use: Not established from a public source
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 28, 2026. No lawsuit, organized opposition, or contested hearing over Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy) in Underwood, McLean County, North Dakota 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

Would source power directly from Rainbow's 1,151 MW Coal Creek Station (lignite). Rainbow is also considering gas-fired generation for the park.

Notes on the record

McLean County rezoned ~800 acres next to Coal Creek Station from agricultural to commercial in June 2025. Rainbow's plans for the area include data centers with "as much as 300 megawatts of electricity demand" (Bismarck Tribune, July 2025); that is a ceiling on demand, not a firm capacity, so no capacity figure is recorded. No tenant or specific project had been announced. This record is the planned park, not the existing 200-megawatt data center that Rainbow already powers at the plant per the same article, which is deliberately not recorded here. Coordinates are approximate, near Coal Creek Station.

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
Cooling method and water use
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.
Cooling method and water use: The water service agreement, any groundwater appropriation permit, and the mechanical narrative in the site plan.
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.

Greenidge Underwood (North Dakota) · Underwood · Greenidge Generation6 mi · Operating · 7.5 MW
Applied Digital Polaris Forge 3 · Hanover · Applied Digital Corporation22 mi · Under construction · 430 MW · Contested

Tell us about your situation

Living near Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy)?

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Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy) in Underwood?

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy)?

No lawsuit over Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy) appears in the record we track as of October 28, 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 Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy) use?

No water withdrawal figure for Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy) is on record here. Water use is rarely published voluntarily; it usually surfaces through a utility service agreement or a state withdrawal permit, both of which are public records. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.

Who operates Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy), and how big is it?

Rainbow Energy Center is the operator on record. No capacity figure is on record for this site. The site is recorded at 800 acres.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Coal Creek Data Center Park (Rainbow Energy)," updated October 28, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/rainbow-energy-coal-creek-data-center-park-nd.

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/rainbow-energy-coal-creek-data-center-park-nd, retrieved October 29, 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.Coal Creek owner plans to power North Dakota data center park · InForum / Bismarck Tribune · retrieved October 26, 2026
2.North Dakota's largest coal plant could power data centers, industrial complex · POWER Magazine · retrieved October 26, 2026

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