Copia Power is advancing a large-scale energy and data center concept in Tonopah, a town located roughly an hour west of Phoenix in the far West Valley. The initiative is aimed at enabling future data center development to progress through local permitting without placing additional strain on existing power delivery systems. By pairing new generation with digital infrastructure on a single site, the company is positioning the project as a self-contained solution to support energy-intensive facilities.
According to reporting from the Phoenix Business Journal, Copia Power is seeking to rezone approximately 3,100 acres near Tonopah for its latest plan, known as the Belmont Energy Center. The site is structured to accommodate a mix of utility-scale renewable energy, conventional generation, battery storage and data center uses, reflecting the developer’s focus on grid-connected power and data center infrastructure.
Most of the planned acreage, about 2,860 acres, is designated for utility-scale solar energy generation. The balance of the site, roughly 320 acres, is slated to host a gas-fired generation facility, battery energy storage systems and data center development. This configuration would give the project multiple on-site power sources and storage capabilities directly adjacent to planned digital infrastructure, designed to help meet demand while limiting the impact on current power networks.
The Belmont Energy Center is supported by a $1.7 billion construction loan, underscoring the capital intensity of pairing generation assets with prospective data center capacity. In addition, the project has a power purchase agreement in place with APS, providing an offtake structure for the planned energy production. With these elements in place, the development is expected to become operational within the next year, subject to successful rezoning and permitting.
As conceived, the Tonopah project highlights how developers are structuring new power resources specifically around data center needs, integrating solar, gas and storage on a single site. For the West Valley, the Belmont Energy Center would represent a sizable new energy platform tied directly to future digital infrastructure, with both land use and grid considerations incorporated into the initial project design.
