Ameresco, CyrusOne Building AI Data Center, Microgrid at California Master Jet Base

Winning the race to lead the world in artificial intelligence capabilities is a dynamic motivation in nearly every American sector right now, from politics to business and the military. The time is now and the mission is critical for achieving AI preeminence, many political and economic leaders say.

The priorities of AI development may be most critical when it comes to the military’s future logistics and even warfare planning and operations. Defending the U.S. from bad actors in the so-called Industrial Compute Age will require cutting-edge AI skills and capacity.

To that end, the U.S. Navy and data center developer CyrusOne are working with energy project developer Ameresco to plan and build a 100-MW AI-optimized data center and connected energy infrastructure at Naval Air Station Lemoore in central California.

Ameresco, which has completed numerous microgrid, distributed generation and energy efficiency projects at multiple U.S. military facilities, will lead work to co-locate on-site energy to power the AI computing systems at NAS Lemoore. Those likely will include generators, microgrid control systems and infrastructure upgrades.

The collaboration between the Navy, CyrusOne and Ameresco will be in alignment with the Trump Administration’s “AI Action Plan” and the president’s executive orders on streamlining permitting and regulatory pathways to build data centers and energy infrastructure quicker.

The project is designed to create on-premises AI computing focused on sensitive government and enterprise applications. Those include large language model training, real-time analytics and mission-critical decision systems, according to the release about the project.

“This initiative directly supports our national priorities in AI and energy dominance,” said NAS Lemoore Executive Officer Captain Jeffry Findlay in a statement. “By enabling secure, reliable power and compute infrastructure at NAS Lemoore, we’re strengthening our ability to support critical missions and ensure operational continuity for those who serve.”

CyrusOne, which has developed more than 50 data centers constructed globally, has partnered with Ameresco to develop AI facilities on the Intelliscale platform. Intelliscale is the CyrusOne blueprint for building AI and high-density computing capacity, which in the case of NAS Lemoore’s data center will be engineered to meet the Department of Defense highest security and compliance standards.

“The facility at NAS Lemoore will provide our federal customers with the secure, on-premise computing solution they need—paired with the resilience of onsite energy supply,” said John Hatem, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of CyrusOne. “Data centers are foundational to our information economy and critical to maintaining U.S. leadership in technological innovation, especially in AI. We’re proud to deliver this solution through our alliance with Ameresco.”

The first phase of the NAS Lemoore AI data center project is expected to be operational by 2027. It will be located on land leased by Ameresco from the Department of Defense.

The energy infrastructure developer, which has traditionally focused on renewable energy but is shifting some of its focus to small modular reactor nuclear technologies, plans to use the project as a model for future AI and energy microgrid combinations. Ameresco has built and operated microgrids for various branches of the U.S. military as well as energy savings and infrastructure projects for universities and other public customers.

NAS Lemoore is the U.S. Navy’s latest and largest master jet base, home to carrier-based tactical squadrons including Carrier Air Wings Two, Nine, Eleven and Seventeen. All four are attached to U.S. aircraft carriers which often operated on global seas.