Texas Firm Strata Expanse Launches AI Data Center Project in Ohio, Pioneering Hydrogen-Powered Infrastructure
December 19, 2025
A consortium led by Texas-based Strata Expanse has broken ground on a novel artificial intelligence data center campus in Lawrence County, Ohio, signaling a significant push to bring advanced computing infrastructure and associated economic development to the region. The project addresses the critical industry-wide shortage of available data center capacity, which has been exacerbated by the explosive demand for AI processing power.
The launch event in Ironton marked the beginning of a planned 30-day national rollout for Strata Expanse's "Land-to-Hand" AI data center model. The company aims to transform a field in Lawrence County into an operational facility within six months. Ellen Taylor, Chief Revenue Officer of Strata Expanse, highlighted the pressing market need, stating, "We have a long list of people who want to be a tenant for us because right now finding data center space is very difficult." The company's strategy involves attracting AI-focused companies as tenants to the campus, creating a hub intended to generate a "snowball effect" of job creation, increased tax revenue, and community investment.
A key innovation of the project is its integrated, sustainable power solution. The energy technology, developed by Ohio's own Millennium Reign Energy, uses electrolysis to produce, purify, compress, store, and dispense hydrogen. This system effectively stores excess energy from wind and solar sources for later use. "It's a way to store wind and solar later when there is no wind and solar," explained Millennium Reign Energy CEO Chris McWhinney. The hydrogen is then converted into electricity by Utah-based Empower to power the data center operations, a approach McWhinney suggests could help stabilize local energy costs.
To achieve rapid deployment, California construction technology firm Livio is fabricating hundreds of modular buildings of various sizes for the site. Livio CEO Nav Aron noted that the Ikea-like component system allows for assembly "extremely quickly, almost 75% faster" than traditional methods. Beyond infrastructure, the project includes a community training initiative to develop a local workforce capable of supporting and managing AI workloads.
The Lawrence County site serves as a pilot, with ambitions to replicate this model of hydrogen-powered, modular AI data centers throughout Ohio. The project represents a convergence of next-generation computing, clean energy storage, and accelerated construction, potentially setting a new template for sustainable digital infrastructure development in regions seeking high-tech economic growth.
Source: wchstv
