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for the substation. That infrastructure was a key reason Sarber selected the site, though she acknowledged the challenge of balancing development with a rural lifestyle. “We don’t want to have people feel their quality of life or their way of life is being completely ended, and that we can seamlessly incorporate our facility into their day-to-day lives without any impacts,” she said. Sarber has hosted several public and private meetings with residents to gather feedback. Ideas floated include regional hiking or horse trails and the construction of nearby rodeo grounds. “What we’re trying to find is that common ground,” she said. An invisible driver Of the 20 emerging energy and technology projects in various planning or construction stages countywide, half are within a 20-mile radius of Maricopa. Not all have made an effort to engage the surrounding community. “I don’t think they fit. We’re a desert. Pinal County is desert.”
as an energy corridor. Her proposal to construct the Horseshoe Energy Project in Rollins’s rural neighborhood is one of 14 power station projects brought forward in Pinal County since early 2024. “Arizona ultimately has the ability to make a lot of power. There is a constant improvement in power that’s coming to the grid,” Sarber said. “But in Pinal specifically, it’s a major energy corridor because of the natural gas assets built over the years” Horseshoe Energy is one of the few proposals to gain even modest community support, with Sarber acknowledging it is often viewed as the lesser of two evils. “I would say, candidly, that people see this as a choice between energy and homes, and they prefer the energy projects over being inundated by a lot of homes in an area they don’t want to become congested,” Sarber said. Still in the planning stages, the project would sit on a 159-acre parcel adjacent to the existing Pinal West Substation at Table Top and Fulcar Roads in Hidden Valley. Existing gas, electric and transmission lines already pass through the area, with additional transmission lines planned
developments such as the Industrial Triangle along Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway. It is electric vehicles needing to charge. And it is a growing network of data centers emerging across the state as daily life becomes increasingly tied to technology. Why Pinal County? In Robert Klob’s mind, the appeal of building energy and data centers in Pinal County is obvious. Klob has practiced architecture for more than three decades and serves on the Planning & Zoning Commissions for both Pinal County and the City of Maricopa. He has watched countless projects be proposed, approved, denied, embraced and opposed. “I think the attractiveness is twofold: It’s attractive because land prices are relatively reasonable, considering what they are like in Maricopa County or even Pima County, and there’s a lot of land. Pinal County, land wise, is the size of Connecticut,” Klob said. For Kelly Sarber, co-founder of Epic Star Energy, the equation includes not only land availability but the county’s long-standing role
DATA CENTERS AND ENERGY PROJECTS IN PINAL COUNT
PINAL PROPOSALS: ENERGY PROJECTS
1 Horseshoe Energy Project, Hidden Valley. 250 megawatts natural gas, 500 MW battery energy storage system. 2 Cactus Wren Energy Storage, Maricopa. 800 MW BESS. 3 La Osa Project, Red Rock. 3000MW natural gas, unknown MW BESS. 4 Silver Reef Energy, Stanfield. 150 MW solar, 200 MW BESS. 5 Griffin Energy Project, Stanfield. 550 MW natural gas, 500 MW solar, 55 0MW BESS.
6 Cactus Flower Solar, Eloy. 270 MW solar, 270 MW BESS. 7 Ore Town Solar, Mammoth. 145 MW solar, 145 MW BESS.
8 Tap Solar Project, Hidden Valley. 1000 MW solar, 1000 MW BESS. 9 Frontier East Solar, Maricopa. 50 MW solar, 300 MW BESS. 10 Sundog Solar, Casa Grande. 200MW solar, unknown MW BESS. 11 Serrano Solar Project, Marana. 220MW solar, 214MW BESS. 12 Project Bella, Casa Grande. 480MW natural gas, 440MW BESS. 13 Silver King Energy Center, Coolidge. 1100MW solar, unknown MW BESS. 14 Sonak Solar Project, Red Rock. 323MW solar, 162MW BESS. 15 Energy Generation and Technology Campus, Maricopa. Unknown MW natural gas, unknown MW BESS.
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PINAL PROPOSALS: DATA CENTERS
1 Energy Generation and Technology Campus, Maricopa * 2 Project Midway, Stanfield 3 EdgeCore Florence Tech Park, Florence 4 Sunhill Mixed Use Project, Florence 5 Arizona Land Consulting Gateway, Casa Grande 6 Southwest Crossing Data Center Campus, Eloy
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7 La Osa Project, Red Rock * * Provide own energy generation
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Source: Pinal County Data obtained: January 2024-November 2025
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InMaricopa.com | Janaury 2026
Janaury 2026 | InMaricopa.com
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