Data Center Site Selection in Florida

Florida has long been a colocation and connectivity market, centered on Miami’s role as a gateway to Latin America, but it has rarely shown up on hyperscale shortlists. That is changing because of scale on the power side. Florida is the nation’s second-largest producer of electricity after Texas, and in 2024 natural gas fueled about three-quarters of its net generation, with nuclear supplying about 11% and renewables and coal nearly all the rest.¹

The demand signal is real. In 2026 NextEra Energy raised its large-load forecast for its Florida subsidiary, Florida Power & Light, to 8 GW by 2032, with hyperscale data centers as the main driver.² Most of the state’s large campus proposals so far sit in Central Florida, especially Polk County between Tampa and Orlando, where land is cheaper than on either coast and inland sites sit farther from storm surge.¹²¹³

Florida also differs from its neighbors. Georgia and Alabama are anchored by Southern Company’s large utilities, while Florida splits large loads among FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and municipal utilities such as JEA in Jacksonville. For the regional comparison, see Southeast site selection and the Georgia guide.

FPL is Florida’s largest utility, and its rules for big loads changed in its 2025 rate case. In November 2025 the Florida Public Service Commission unanimously approved a settlement that lets FPL collect an additional $6.9 billion over four years and creates large-load tariffs that hold heavy users to long-term contracts, with penalties for early exit.⁶

A July 2026 Columbia County briefing packet, reproducing FPL’s summary, laid out the approved structure.⁷ Both tariffs apply to new or incremental load of 50 MW or more at a single location with a load factor of at least 85%. LLCS-1 covers up to 3 GW of new demand along portions of FPL’s 500 kV system; LLCS-2 covers other qualifying loads. Customers pay a minimum demand charge of 70% of contract demand, sign for at least 20 years from the in-service date (including the ramp) and owe an exit fee tied to accelerated payment of the remaining incremental generation charges if they leave early.⁷ FPL adds that large customers must fund an engineering study and pay 100% of the cost of the new generation needed to serve them.³

The practical effect is that a parcel near FPL’s 500 kV backbone may have a clearer, better-defined price than one that is not. A 20-year take-or-pay style commitment also shifts risk onto the end user, so speculative developers should expect FPL to want a credible tenant before it commits capacity. Our guide to large-load tariffs and electric service agreements explains minimum bills, collateral and exit fees, and contract demand and load factor are defined in the glossary.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 484 on May 7, 2026.⁸ The governor’s office describes it as preventing data center costs, including electricity costs, from being passed on to other customers, and requires public utilities to offer minimum tariffs and service requirements for these customers, with the Public Service Commission carrying them out.¹⁴⁴ Every investor-owned electric utility had to file a compliant large-load tariff by October 1, 2026.⁹

Duke Energy Florida, which serves much of Central Florida and the Gulf Coast north of Tampa Bay, was the first test. At an August 2026 hearing the Office of Public Counsel argued that Duke’s proposal did not meet the law’s basic requirements; commissioners heard about five hours of testimony and took no vote, with a written order to follow post-hearing filings.⁹ Tampa Electric filed its plan around October 1, 2026. It says it serves no large-load customers today and expects a commission decision late in 2026 or early 2027.¹⁵

Jacksonville is the main market where the investor-owned rules do not set the terms. JEA is a city-owned utility, so a site there means negotiating directly with JEA and the city rather than relying on a PSC-approved tariff. The same is true of other municipal systems and electric cooperatives, which is why confirming the utility service territory comes first on any Florida parcel.

Florida has offered a sales and use tax exemption for data centers for years, but the 2025 tax package rewrote it. The law raised the minimum capacity, measured as critical IT load, from 15 MW to 100 MW, and that threshold must be met within five years of construction. It also moved the deadline for certificates from June 30, 2027 to June 30, 2037. Businesses apply to the Florida Department of Revenue for a temporary tax exemption certificate.⁵

The change cuts both ways for site selection. It keeps the incentive alive for a decade for hyperscale and AI campuses, but it removes it for most enterprise and colocation projects below 100 MW. Greenberg Traurig warned that, as drafted, the language would end the exemption for existing data centers below 100 MW as of August 1, 2025, that the loss of the exemption on electricity purchases could disrupt landlord leases, and that it was unclear whether lawmakers intended that result.¹⁶ For how Florida compares with other states, see data center sales tax exemptions by state and the glossary entry on sales tax exemptions.

Storm risk is the issue every Florida buyer raises first. Florida has been hit by about 40% of all U.S. hurricanes in NOAA’s records, and 88% of major hurricane strikes have hit either Florida or Texas.¹⁰ Risk is not uniform: coastal parcels face surge and wind, while inland Central Florida trades surge exposure for wind and heavy rain.

The Florida Building Code sets wind loads by location and risk category. Miami-Dade and Broward counties are defined as the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ), where a single design wind speed applies across each county for each risk category.¹¹ Under the 2010 code maps, Miami-Dade used 175 mph for Risk Category II buildings and 185 mph for Categories III and IV.¹¹ Owners of mission-critical facilities often design to a higher risk category than the code minimum, which raises structural, roofing and equipment-anchoring costs.

Flood is the second test. Low relief, high water tables and intense rainfall mean much of the state has mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas, and stormwater ponds can take a large share of a parcel. See our guides to hurricane and storm surge risk, floodplain sites and stormwater management.

SB 484 put water on the same footing as power. Data centers need a consumptive use permit to tap state water resources, water management districts must deny an application if the use would harm local resources, and reclaimed water must be used when it is available.⁴ That makes reclaimed water for cooling and closed-loop designs more than a sustainability choice in Florida.

The law also kept local control. The governor’s office says local governments keep the authority to reject data center development, and Florida Phoenix reports that the law preserves local land development regulation, lets companies keep expansion plans confidential for a year, requires public meetings to cover water use and utility impacts, and orders a state OPPAGA study due July 1, 2027.¹⁴⁸

Polk County shows both sides. In April 2026 Fort Meade approved a 20-year development agreement for a 1,300-acre data center campus that reserves city water and wastewater capacity for the project, but the water supply still needs separate approval from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.¹² In August 2026 nearby Lakeland voted 4–3 for a one-year moratorium on data center development after opposition to a proposed facility of up to 100 MW.¹³ Read our guides to data center moratoriums and community engagement before choosing a jurisdiction.

1. 01Confirm the serving utility and ask whether the load would fall under FPL’s LLCS-1 or LLCS-2,⁷ or the current Duke or Tampa Electric large-load filing.⁹¹⁵
2. 02Test the tenant’s commitment against a 20-year term, a 70% minimum demand charge and an exit fee before marketing the site as powered.⁷
3. 03Model the sales tax exemption only if the campus reaches 100 MW of critical IT load within five years.⁵
4. 04Map reclaimed water sources and talk to the water management district early.⁴
5. 05Check the county and city for moratoriums and pending ordinances, and confirm the zoning district allows a data center by right or through a rezoning.

Expect the rules to keep moving. Duke Energy Florida’s and Tampa Electric’s large-load filings were still before the commission in early October 2026, so ask each utility for its current terms, study steps and timeline rather than relying on an earlier summary.⁹¹⁵ If you are weighing a Florida parcel, our methodology explains how we score power, water, flood and entitlement risk, and you can get a site reviewed.