Knox County TN one-year data center moratorium (2026)
Knox County, Tennessee — One-Year Data Center Moratorium at a 5 MW Peak-Demand Threshold, With Five Named Grandfathered Facilities and an Anti-Circumvention Clause (June 23, 2026)
Knox County, TN · Knox County, Tenn. — one-year data center moratorium resolution (adopted June 23, 2026; expires June 30, 2027)
- Status
- In effect
- Expires
- June 30, 2027
- Applies to
- Operators and developers of data centers in Knox County with peak electric demand of 5 MW, or who decline to disclose their demand; and the five grandfathered facilities, which may not expand power contracts or substitute alternative generation
- Enforced by
- Knox County Commission / Knoxville-Knox County Planning (permitting and zoning administration)
Knox County Commission adopted a one-year data center moratorium on June 23, 2026. It took effect immediately and runs through June 30, 2027, and the Commission can vote to extend it. The moratorium is unusually carefully drafted for a local measure, and three features are worth knowing. First, the trigger is a peak electric demand of 5 megawatts — a low threshold compared with the 20 to 50 megawatt lines other jurisdictions have drawn — and a facility that REFUSES TO DISCLOSE its power demand is covered too, so a developer cannot escape the moratorium by staying silent. Second, five existing operations are grandfathered by name: Bitdeer Tennessee, Infinity Data Center, Scipio Technologies, Tenhats Knoxville and Windstream Knoxville. Naming them removes the usual argument about who was operating when the ordinance passed. Facilities owned or operated by the State of Tennessee or by Knox County itself are also outside the moratorium, subject to conditions on leasing. Third — and this is the part most local moratoriums lack — existing data centers may not expand their power contracts or switch to alternative energy sources such as gas turbines in order to work around the limits. That closes the two most obvious routes to growing under a freeze. The City of Knoxville, a separate government inside the county, adopted its own one-year moratorium in July 2026; the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission then approved a recommended moratorium and zoning framework on August 13, 2026 for the County Commission to act on.
Who is protected: Knox County, Tennessee residents and electricity ratepayers; county grid and water infrastructure
Legal detail
Knox County, Tenn. — County Commission resolution adopting a one-year data center moratorium, passed June 23, 2026, effective immediately, expiring June 30, 2027, EXTENDABLE BY COMMISSION VOTE. COVERAGE TRIGGER: data centers with a peak electric demand of 5 MW, AND any operation that REFUSES TO DISCLOSE its power demand level — a non-disclosure trigger that forecloses avoidance by silence, which few local moratoriums address. The 5 MW threshold is materially lower than the 20 MW (Town of Tonawanda NY) and 50 MW (New York State) lines drawn elsewhere in this dataset. NAMED GRANDFATHERED OPERATIONS (five, exempted by name in the instrument): Bitdeer Tennessee, Infinity Data Center, Scipio Technologies, Tenhats Knoxville, Windstream Knoxville. GOVERNMENTAL EXEMPTION: operations owned or operated by the State of Tennessee or by Knox County, with conditions attached to leasing. ANTI-CIRCUMVENTION CLAUSE — the distinguishing provision: existing data centers may NOT expand power contracts or substitute alternative energy sources such as gas turbines to circumvent the moratorium limits. Most local moratoriums restrict new permits only and are silent on incumbent expansion; Knox County closed both the contract-expansion and behind-the-meter-generation routes. RELATED ACTIONS IN THE SAME COUNTY BY DIFFERENT GOVERNMENTS: the City of Knoxville adopted its own one-year moratorium in July 2026 (separate municipal corporation, tracked as a pending research item); the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission approved a recommended one-year moratorium plus zoning recommendations on August 13, 2026, which the County Commission must adopt to change the zoning code. SUPERSEDES the stale dataset row Knox County Data Center District (pending), which carried status `proposed` and a last_verified_date of 2026-06-11 — twelve days before adoption.
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | Knox County, TN |
|---|---|
| Level | County |
| Strength | Stronger |
| Enacted | June 23, 2026 |
| Citation | Knox County, Tenn. — one-year data center moratorium resolution (adopted June 23, 2026; expires June 30, 2027) |
| Private right of action | No, agency enforcement only |
| Penalties | Construction, operation and permitting of covered data centers is prohibited through June 30, 2027; grandfathered facilities that expand power contracts or substitute alternative generation fall outside their exemption |
| Topics | data-center siting and energy · consumer protection · government use of AI · AI disclosure and transparency |
| Agency page | Data Center Moratorium — Knox County Commission (official) |
More AI rules in Knox County, TN
- Knox County TN Flock camera ban and removal order (2026) · In effect
- Knox County Data Center District (pending) · Proposed / pending
Related data-center siting and energy rules elsewhere
- Superior WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Dane County WI Hyperscale Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- Madison WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Manitowoc County WI Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- WA SB 5982 (Data Center / Clean Energy) · In effect
- Dayton OH data center moratorium (180-day, Apr 2026) · In effect
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