Data centers in Kern County

R&L Capital wants to build a 238,000 square foot data center near the intersection of Highway 395 and Highway 178 in Inyokern, an unincorporated part of Kern County. The first phase would draw 60 megawatts of a planned 99 megawatt total, using a mix of liquid and air cooling across six data halls with an onsite substation. The proposal drew formal opposition from the Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District, the city of Ridgecrest, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, and the local school district, mainly over an estimated 12 to 16 million gallons of water use per year.

California Resources Corporation is seeking a conditional use permit for a 400,000 square foot, 275 megawatt AI data center in the Elk Hills Oil Field of western Kern County, about a mile and a half from the nearest home near Valley Acres. The company would power the facility directly from its own Elk Hills Power Plant using a recirculating water cooling system instead of evaporative cooling, and estimates roughly 1,600 workers at peak construction. State and local trade councils have endorsed the project, while the Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District has formally opposed it.