Pinal County will vote on La Osa, which could become one of Arizona's largest data center projects
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors postponed a vote until August 2026 on the La Osa Energy Center, a large-scale data center project planned near Eloy, Arizona. Developer Vermaland scaled back the project by 80% due to community opposition, reducing it to 11 data centers with a 1-gigawatt energy demand. The county is imposing over 50 conditions related to water and energy use, noise, and power generation.
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors has deferred a decision on the rezoning and site planning request for the La Osa Energy Center until August 2026. The project, proposed by developer Vermaland, is an 11-building data center campus with an associated gas power plant and battery energy storage system, planned 12 miles outside Eloy, Arizona. It is expected to draw up to 1 gigawatt of energy, comparable to a large city.
Initially much larger, Vermaland scaled back the project by 80% in response to community opposition. The county is now considering the rezoning of over 3,000 acres, with a third reserved as open space, and has introduced 52 conditions for development. These conditions, which include 19 new rules, address concerns over water and energy use, noise, and emissions from the on-site power plant. They require annual water use reports and limit potable water use to 600 acre-feet per year. Energy conditions mandate that Vermaland must self-power until a utility can sufficiently serve its demand and cover all associated energy generation and delivery costs once connected to the grid.
The planning and zoning commission members expressed insufficient knowledge about data centers' impact on local resources. The decision by the supervisors was informed by a special session with experts to review data center regulation trends. Other similar 1-gigawatt data center projects are moving forward in Arizona, including one approved in Maricopa County near Buckeye and another facing resident opposition in Page.