On April 1, 2026, FracTracker visited the former Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, to document the early construction of the Homer City Energy Campus, a massive fracked gas-powered AI and high-performance computing development planned for the site of what was once Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant. The visit coincided with HCR’s announcement of “first steel,” marking the start of vertical construction at the site.

The project is planned for more than 3,200 acres and is expected to be served by a roughly 4.5-gigawatt fracked gas-fired power facility. To put that in perspective, if a 4.5-gigawatt power plant ran at full output around the clock for a year, it would generate roughly as much electricity as 3.7 million average U.S. homes use annually. It is one of the biggest power stations currently in development, and on scale with the largest nuclear facility currently operating in the U.S. The facility will not necessarily operate at full capacity continuously, but the comparison helps illustrate the scale of the buildout.

FracTracker’s Western Program Director, drone operator, and thermographer Kyle Ferrar captured aerial imagery of the site, including demolition activity at the former coal plant.


“FracTracker’s audience has been asking for aerial imagery of data center development,” Kyle said. “A bird’s-eye view helps put the scale of these sites into perspective.”

During the flight, Kyle heard a loud blast from the direction of the site. He later contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and was told the blast was a “scheduled, permitted demolition blast.” “The before-and-after imagery is striking,” Kyle said.