Data Center Site Selection in Idaho

Idaho’s appeal starts with electricity. Hydropower provided 44% of the state’s in-state generation in 2024, natural gas a record 31% and wind a record 15%, and renewables as a whole made up about 69% of generation, the fifth-highest share of any state.¹ Idaho had the third-lowest average residential electricity price in the nation in 2024, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration attributes in part to inexpensive hydropower.¹

Most of that hydro belongs to Idaho Power, which runs 17 hydroelectric projects on the Snake River and its tributaries. In a normal water year the three-dam Hells Canyon Complex alone supplies about 70% of the utility’s hydro output and roughly 30% of all the energy it generates.⁸ The catch is that hydro output moves with snowpack and river flows, so a dry year shifts more of the load to gas and market purchases. Our guide to hydropower and data center siting covers how buyers weigh that variability.

The other draws are a cool, dry climate in the Treasure Valley and the high desert and a growing Boise metro with fiber and labor. Meta’s Kuna design, for example, relies on outside air for cooling for at least half the year.⁹ For a broader regional view, see Mountain West site selection and the Pacific Northwest guide.

Southern Idaho, including Boise, Nampa, Kuna and Twin Falls, is largely Idaho Power territory. Avista serves much of northern Idaho and Rocky Mountain Power much of eastern Idaho, so the first step on any parcel is confirming the service territory.

Idaho Power does not serve data centers under a published, standard large-load rate. Every customer above 20 MW needs a special contract, an energy service agreement with its own pricing, and each one must be approved by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.³¹⁰ In practice that makes each large load its own regulatory case.

The Meta precedent shows how this works. Meta’s subsidiary Brisbie sought service for an enterprise data center near Kuna that would exceed 20,000 kW at a single facility, and the Commission approved the energy sales agreement in Final Order No. 35777 in May 2023, subject to several modifications.¹⁰ Expect the commission to look closely at who pays for new generation and transmission, and expect the contract to tie the customer to its ramp schedule.

Idaho Power has also shown it will price speculative load differently. In 2022 the Commission approved Schedule 20, a separate class for speculative high-density loads such as cryptocurrency mining, whose terms modify the standard large general service rates to reflect the risk of volatile, relocatable load.¹¹ A data center developer without an identified end user should be ready to explain why it is not that kind of load. Our guide to large-load tariffs and electric service agreements explains the common contract terms.

Idaho Power’s 2025 integrated resource plan forecasts peak load growth of about 1,700 MW, or 45%, by 2045, with nearly 1,000 MW of it in the next five years.⁴ The plan names the Meta data center in Kuna and Micron’s expansion in Boise as drivers of a new level of industrial growth.⁴

Bigger proposals are lining up behind them. Diode Ventures, a Black & Veatch subsidiary, won local approval in 2025 for its Gemstone Technology Park, a data center campus on 620 acres in Kuna.¹² Neighbors have raised concerns that the project could push up their power bills.⁵ The developer has not published a capacity figure, so its effect on Idaho Power’s forecast is not yet public.

New transmission is coming, slowly. The roughly 271-mile Boardman to Hemingway line between eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho is being built by Idaho Power on its eastern stretch and PacifiCorp on its western portion.¹³ Construction of the $1.5 billion line began in 2025 after nearly two decades of planning, and in July 2026 a mining company sued in federal court to reroute part of it.¹³

Rates are now political. In 2026 a legislator introduced House Bill 756, which would bar the commission from approving new customers needing 20 MW or more without showing that serving them would not raise rates for everyone else.³ The sponsor said the commission already follows that principle in practice.³ Confirm the bill’s final status and any new commission policy before relying on today’s process.

Since July 1, 2020, qualifying new data centers in Idaho have been eligible for a sales tax exemption on server equipment and on construction materials for the facility.² To qualify, according to the Idaho Department of Commerce, a company must:

• Make a capital investment of at least $250 million within five years after construction begins.²
• Devote the business, or a separately operated segment, solely to providing the data center.²
• Create and maintain at least 30 new jobs in Idaho within two years of starting operations, at an average wage at or above the county average.²
• Apply for a provisional exemption through the Idaho State Tax Commission.²

Lawmakers have tried to narrow it. A 2026 bipartisan bill, House Bill 609, would have added a July 1, 2036 sunset, limited the exemption to internal server equipment, added energy and water criteria, and barred data centers that take the sales tax exemption from also claiming a property tax exemption.¹⁴ The bill did not pass, leaving the exemption on the books.⁶

Given the reform pressure, a project that depends on the exemption should model a case where it is narrowed for future applicants. Our guide to sales tax exemptions by state compares Idaho with its neighbors, and tax incentives vs. power costs covers how much weight to give either.

Southern Idaho’s best data center land is often irrigated farmland near Idaho Power substations, which puts projects in direct contact with the state’s water rights system. Water in Idaho is allocated by the Idaho Department of Water Resources, and new rights are not always available. In March 2026 the department’s director placed a five-year moratorium on processing new or pending groundwater applications in southern Canyon County, holding 21 applications, while it fills data gaps in the aquifer model south of Lake Lowell.⁷

The Legislature has also stepped in. House Bill 895, signed in April 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, bars new data centers that begin construction on or after that date from using cooling water consumptively unless it comes from a city, water district or water and sewer district system.¹⁵ The aim is to push developers toward closed-loop, nonconsumptive cooling rather than evaporative systems.¹⁵

That makes cooling design part of site selection. Meta built its Kuna campus to be at least 80% more water efficient than the average data center, using outside air for at least half the year, and committed about $50 million to a new water and sewer system for the city.⁹ Projects that still plan evaporative cooling should confirm a municipal supply early and check how the 2026 law applies. See data center water requirements and closed-loop and waterless cooling.

Converting farmland also changes the local politics. Rate increases for irrigators have become part of the data center debate in Idaho, and neighbors of the Kuna proposal have raised concerns about paying more for power.⁵ Our guide to agricultural land conversion covers the tax and zoning side.

Meta’s first Idaho data center is the clearest public template for a hyperscale project in the state. Announced as an $800 million investment, the campus is designed for about 960,000 square feet in Kuna, a suburb south of Boise.⁹

• Industrial zoning in a city, not a rural county, kept land use simpler.⁹
• Idaho Power signed new solar power purchase agreements whose energy and renewable credits flow to the customer, each approved by the commission.¹⁶
• The energy sales agreement went through a full commission proceeding and was approved with modifications.¹⁰
• The company paid for local water and sewer capacity rather than relying on what existed.⁹

The lesson for later projects is that Idaho rewards buyers who bring their own resources and pay their own way, and that the regulatory path is case by case. Larger, less-defined loads will meet more scrutiny than Meta did, especially now that the load factor and size of AI campuses are well understood by regulators and the public.

1. 01Confirm the utility (Idaho Power, Avista, Rocky Mountain Power or a cooperative or municipal system) and the nearest transmission substation.
2. 02Ask the utility for an indicative view of capacity and timing at your peak MW and ramp, knowing anything above 20 MW will need a special contract.³
3. 03Plan for a commission proceeding and for questions about who pays for new resources and transmission.¹⁰
4. 04Check water: municipal service, existing rights, any Department of Water Resources moratorium and the 2026 limit on consumptive cooling water.⁷¹⁵
5. 05Test eligibility for the sales tax exemption against the $250 million and 30-job thresholds, and track reform bills.²⁶
6. 06Map local reception, especially in irrigated farm areas where power rates are already contentious.⁵

The site due diligence checklist covers the general items, and the large-load interconnection process explains how utilities study requests. If you hold or are evaluating land in Idaho, you can get a site reviewed.