When the public objects, when ratepayers push back, when zoning boards say no, the next move isn’t to comply. It’s to escape. This page tracks the four altitudes data center infrastructure is heading to next, and the operators leading the way out.
Each tier solves a different regulatory problem for the operator. Each one creates a different policy gap for the public. DCSI tracks all three so they can be argued about with the same vocabulary.
Crusoe Abilene (Taylor County), Stargate Abilene, Vantage Frontier. Campuses that bypass utility interconnection by building their own gas turbines on-site. They escape the ERCOT queue. They also escape PUC oversight, ratepayer cost-allocation, and most state IRP transparency.
Microsoft retired Project Natick in 2024. China’s Highlander runs the only operational commercial subsea data center in the world (Hainan, since March 2023) and the first wind-paired subsea pod (Shanghai, October 2025). Nautilus Stockton is the only floating DC operating in the U.S. DeepGreen Eastport triggered the first U.S. statewide moratorium on data centers in 60 days.
Lonestar’s lunar storage, Lumen Orbit / Starcloud’s solar-powered LEO compute, Axiom’s orbital data services, China’s announced 2,800-satellite constellation. Operators that escape every terrestrial regulatory regime at once, by leaving the planet.
Behind-the-meter (BTM) means the data center generates its own electricity on-site rather than connecting to the grid. For operators, this avoids the multi-year ERCOT interconnection queue. For regulators and the public, it sidesteps oversight that would otherwise apply: PUC review of large loads, ratepayer cost allocation, IRP transparency, and most public hearings.
Floating and subsea data centers use seawater for cooling, which dramatically improves their water-use effectiveness compared to inland evaporative cooling. They also operate in jurisdictionally novel positions where land-use ordinances, ratepayer cost-allocation, and county zoning regimes do not cleanly apply. Microsoft proved the engineering case in 2020 with Project Natick, then retired the program in 2024. China is the only operator running commercial subsea capacity today.
Twelve named projects building toward orbital data center capacity. None operate at scale yet. Every project hits at least one of the policy gaps DCSI tracks: jurisdictional ambiguity, no terrestrial water draw, no terrestrial land draw, but full freedom from state, county, or municipal oversight.
All four escape tiers exploit gaps in regulatory regimes built for an earlier era, when data centers were small, on-grid, and on-Earth. The policy audit (federal + orbital + state + local + international) maps every applicable rule across the five jurisdictional tiers.
| Policy | Triggers | Tier hit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPA NSPS Subpart KKKKa | Closes the trailer-mounted “non-road” turbine loophole xAI used in Memphis | Behind-the-meter, On-grid generators | Enacted 2026 |
| FERC PJM Co-Location Order | Legitimizes BTM gas turbine + DC pairings on net-withdrawal basis | Behind-the-meter | Enacted 2025 |
| FCC NPRM Apr 9 2026 | Extends covered-list (Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Dahua, Hytera) to commercial colocation | National security · all tiers | NPRM · comment closes Jun 9 2026 |
| FCC Part 100 Space Modernization NPRM | Wholesale Part 25 replacement; SpaceX 1M-sat Orbital DC application is the proximate test case | Orbital | NPRM · pending |
| FCC 5-Year Deorbit Rule | Materially increases mass budget for LEO compute constellations | Orbital | Enacted 2024 |
| America First Investment Policy NSPM | CFIUS Fast-Track for ally sovereign capital; presumptive denial for PRC-linked DC deals | All tiers · foreign capital | EO 2025 |
| EU Energy Efficiency Directive Article 12 | Mandatory disclosure for data centers above 500 kW (energy + water performance) | International. Informs Global view | Effective 2024 |
| Ireland CRU 2025 update | Replaces Dublin moratorium with rules requiring 80% Irish renewables in 6 yrs + on-site dispatchable generation | International. Informs Global view | Enacted Dec 2025 |
| Outer Space Treaty Art VI | Establishes state responsibility for non-governmental space activities; legal foundation for FCC orbital licensing | Orbital | Treaty 1967 |
Selected from 169 policies tracked across 5 jurisdictional tiers (US Federal · Orbital · US State · US Local · International). Full policy tracker page coming in V1.5.
