A federal-private partnership announced last week would bring 10 gigawatts (GW) of new power generation to Pike County, Ohio, pairing a large-scale natural gas buildout with a data center campus on former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) land.

The announcement was part of a broader U.S.-Japan trade and investment framework that is beginning to take concrete shape. DOE and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the agreement with SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy and AEP Ohio.

Under the arrangement, SB Energy plans to develop 9.2 GW of natural gas generation alongside a 10 GW data center complex at the Portsmouth Site, a former uranium enrichment facility that has undergone decades of environmental remediation. SB Energy has also committed $4.2 billion to upgrade and expand transmission infrastructure in Southern Ohio in coordination with AEP Ohio.

Both the generation and grid investments are structured so that costs are not passed to ratepayers, a condition the Trump administration has termed its “Ratepayer Protection Pledge.” Excess transmission and generation capacity, officials said, would be made available to the broader grid.

The Portsmouth announcement represents the most developed iteration yet of projects tied to Japan’s $550 billion U.S. investment pledge, which was framed as part of a trade agreement lowering U.S. tariffs on Japanese imports. A February announcement had outlined the project’s scale and general configuration, but left key execution questions unresolved, including interconnection, permitting posture, fuel supply and contracting structure.

Construction is expected to begin this year, though detailed engineering, permitting and financing documentation have not been publicly released.

NextEra also announces plans for large-scale gas generation

The Ohio deal was not the only large-scale natural gas development tied to the U.S.-Japan framework announced that week. NextEra Energy confirmed March 20 that President Trump had approved development of up to 10 GW of gas-fired generation across Texas and Pennsylvania hubs.

Those projects, including a Texas site developed in coordination with Comstock Resources, would be jointly owned by U.S. and Japanese interests and operated by NextEra, pending negotiation of definitive agreements.

NextEra CEO John Ketchum said the company’s hub-based development model, which currently includes nearly 30 sites at various stages of development, is designed to compress timelines and reduce execution risk. The company is targeting approximately 40 hubs total.

Whether execution keeps pace with announcement scale remains to be seen, but the volume of committed gigawatts and named partners represents a measurable step beyond earlier, more tentative project outlines.

Texas and PJM are notably two of the fastest-growing areas for large data center development and associated electricity demand.