Louisiana Economic Development announced Delta Forge 1 as a $3.6 billion Rapides Parish AI factory build. Applied Digital describes 430 MW of total utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, and initial operations targeted for mid-2027. Local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename; it is an alias, not an operator-confirmed project name.
What matters first for Delta Forge 1
Applied Digital's Delta Forge 1 campus is under construction near Boyce. Public company and Louisiana Economic Development materials describe 430 MW of total utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, more than 200 full-time jobs, and more than 1,000 peak construction jobs, with initial operations targeted for mid-2027. Follow this profile for the current status, utility posture, water or permit controls, source links, and alias terms that engines and readers use for the same campus.
Interactive parish, utility, transmission, and water layers load as this section enters view.
What is Delta Forge 1 in Louisiana? Applied Digital's Delta Forge 1 campus is under construction near Boyce. Public company and Louisiana Economic Development materials describe 430 MW of total utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, more than 200 full-time jobs, and more than 1,000 peak construction jobs, with initial operations targeted for mid-2027. The canonical local profile is this page: /data-centers/delta-forge-1.
The important search bridge is naming: Delta Forge 1 is the company-announced name, while local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename that still appears in searches. The power answer must keep 430 MW of total utility design separate from up to 300 MW of critical IT load and distinguish the 672-acre acquired parcel record from Applied Digital's more-than-500 and more-than-600-acre campus descriptions and Louisiana's approximately 300-acre initial-facilities scope.
Delta Forge 1 is Applied Digital's company-announced name for the Louisiana AI factory campus near Boyce in Rapides Parish. Local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename for the same campus.
Applied Digital Project Lightning Louisiana is a legacy search phrase for the Rapides Parish project tracked here as Delta Forge 1. Applied Digital's official project name is Delta Forge 1; local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename, but reviewed operator primary sources do not establish it as an official project name.
Applied Digital says Delta Forge 1 is designed for 430 MW of total utility power across two facilities, enabling up to 300 MW of critical IT load. Cleco is the confirmed serving utility; no project-specific LPSC docket or approval was identified in the reviewed record.
Applied Digital's Louisiana AI factory is in Rapides Parish near Boyce. LouisianAI routes Boyce data center, Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Rapides Parish AI factory, and Project Lightning searches to this canonical project profile and the Rapides Parish hub.
Applied Digital and Louisiana Economic Development both say initial Delta Forge 1 operations are targeted for mid-2027, subject to construction execution, utility delivery, and final site buildout.
Louisiana Economic Development announced Delta Forge 1 as a $3.6 billion Rapides Parish AI factory build. Applied Digital describes 430 MW of total utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, and initial operations targeted for mid-2027. Local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename; it is an alias, not an operator-confirmed project name.
| Claim | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Capex range | $3.6B [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] | Louisiana Economic Development |
| Power capacity | 430 MW [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] | Louisiana Economic Development |
| Site size | 672 acres · Verification needed [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] | Louisiana Economic Development |
| Jobs | 200 permanent · 1,000 construction [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] | Louisiana Economic Development |
| Louisiana incentive posture | Act 730 sales/use tax exemption and local PILOT structures require document-level verification. [13] | Louisiana Legislature |
| Sales/use tax and PILOT framework | Louisiana Act 730 and local PILOT structures are tracked as separate legal/economic artifacts. [13] | Louisiana Legislature |
| Entity aliases | Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Boyce data center, Applied Digital Rapides Parish AI factory, and Applied Digital Louisiana AI factory point to the Applied Digital campus near Boyce. Project Lightning is a locally documented internal codename, not an operator-confirmed project name. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] | Louisiana Economic Development |
Cleco · Verified September 23, 2026
Load bases are modeled separately and are never summed, averaged, or normalized into a single MW figure. Any basis without a named public source is recorded as not-in-public-record rather than estimated. Every populated value carries its own source; every basis without one is held explicitly as not in public record.
Requested
Not in public record
Contracted
Not in public record
Design capacity
Initial campus design — 430 MW of total utility power across two buildings (utility-design basis), with the ability to scale in 2028 and beyond · as of January 22, 2026
Applied Digital · 2026-01-22 ↗Utility-deliverable
Not in public record
Critical IT
Up to 300 MW of critical IT load, delivered through two initial 150 MW facilities · as of January 22, 2026
Applied Digital · 2026-01-22 ↗In service
Not in public record
Agreements
Not in public record
No named service, interconnection, or offtake agreement is in the reviewed public record for this project.
Queue position
Not in public record
Cleco is the serving utility of record; no public interconnection queue position has been disclosed for the campus.
Energization dates
Targeted — initial operations expected to commence mid-2027 (company statement)
Applied Digital · 2026-01-22 ↗Substations
Not in public record
No named substation dependency is in the public record for this project.
Transmission
Not in public record
No named transmission dependency is in the public record for this project.
Generation & storage
Not in public record
No dedicated generation or storage dependency is in the public record for this project.
Rate / tariff posture
Cleco is the confirmed serving utility per the desk record; no project-specific LPSC docket or tariff approval was identified in the reviewed public record.
Curtailment risk
Unknown
No interruptibility, curtailment, or demand-response terms for this load appear in the reviewed public record; the risk is not assessed rather than assumed low.
Verified September 23, 2026
Each row is one dated public record — or an explicit not in public record monitoring marker where no filing could be located. Rows never imply a permit exists without a linked source.
Next: Executed state incentive agreements or LED contract records for the Rapides Parish campus, when published.
Next: LDEQ EDMS entries or public notices for air permits tied to the campus or backup generation.
Next: Rapides Parish planning and police jury agendas, minutes, or ordinances covering the Applied Digital campus site.
Verified September 23, 2026
Every field below carries its own source or is held explicitly as not in public record. Cooling designs, withdrawal sources, and volumes are never inferred from nearby plants, river adjacency, or typical hyperscale designs.
Cooling method
Not in public record
Monitored through LDEQ water-permit notices, Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy groundwater records, parish water-board minutes, USACE New Orleans District, and operator disclosures.
No cooling design for Delta Forge 1 is filed in the public record; the desk water posture for the project is to-be-verified.
Withdrawal source
Not in public record
Monitored through LDEQ water-permit notices, Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy groundwater records, parish water-board minutes, USACE New Orleans District, and operator disclosures.
Discharge destination
Not in public record
Monitored through LDEQ water-permit notices, Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy groundwater records, parish water-board minutes, USACE New Orleans District, and operator disclosures.
Authorized volumes
Not in public record
No daily-gallon authorization is filed at project level. Monitored through LDEQ water-permit notices, Conservation and Energy groundwater records, and parish water-board minutes.
Water / wastewater permits
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality · No discharge permit located in the public record
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality ↗Water-board / supply agreements
Not in public record
No parish water-board or supply agreement is in the public record. Monitored through parish water-board minutes and police-jury agendas.
Water stress
Not in public record
No site-level water-stress assessment for the Rapides Parish campus is in the public record.
Flood & hurricane
Not in public record
No FEMA flood-zone determination or hurricane-exposure assessment for the site is in the public record. Monitored through parish floodplain and hazard-mitigation records.
Wetlands
Not in public record
No wetlands delineation or Section 404 record for the campus is in the public record.
Emissions / air
Not in public record
No project-level air permit for on-site generation or backup equipment is in the public record.
Waste streams
Not in public record
No solid or hazardous waste stream filing for the campus is in the public record.
Review status
No standalone environmental review filing located
Not in public recordDesk records note the Boyce-area site is already industrial; no consolidated environmental review document is in the public record.
Verified September 23, 2026
Land deals, incentive terms, contractor awards, and community exposure each carry a named source or are held explicitly as not in the public record. Construction and operations jobs are never merged, and no dollar figure is estimated without a published record.
Land transactions
date not public · price not public · 672.52 ac · parcel ref not public
672.52 acres allotted in the company's application to the England Airpark Economic & Industrial Development District; about 300 acres are announced for two buildings with the remainder held for 'future use'. Documents were obtained by KALB via records request; no sale price is public.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Assessed value
Not in the public record
Rapides Parish assessment figures are not published; the ad-valorem equivalent is set by the PILOT fee schedule instead.
Incentive terms
25-year term
Economic Development Financing Term Sheet obtained by KALB: a flat annual fee in lieu of standard taxes — $27.4M in year 1, stepping down to $19.4M by years 22–25 — plus $18M per year for three years to regional taxing bodies and community development.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗20-year term
LED (May 26, 2026): Applied Digital "qualified for Louisiana's state and local sales and use tax exemption" on qualifying data center equipment. The statutory agreement term is 20 years, renewable for 10.
Louisiana Economic Development · 2026-05-26 ↗Taxable-value implications
The PILOT replaces ad-valorem exposure with a fixed, declining fee schedule ($27.4M in year 1 down to $19.4M by years 22–25), so parish revenue is decoupled from the assessed value of the $3.6B build.
Method: Qualitative: restates the term-sheet schedule reported by KALB from a records request. LouisianAI publishes no independent assessment math.
Construction packages
Under construction — broke ground January 2026; initial operations targeted for 2027
contractor not public · value not public
Construction plans reflect schematics for two to three additional 'future' buildings; contractor awards are not in the public record.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Contractor awards
Not in the public record
No contractor award is in the public record for this project; awards are monitored through parish bid postings and operator announcements.
Construction jobs
More than 1,000 construction jobs at peak development per LED and company framing.
Louisiana Economic Development · 2026-05-26 ↗Operations jobs
The term sheet obligates creating and maintaining 200 full-time jobs within five years at wages at or above 150% of the statewide annual average; LED projects 418 total new jobs in the Central Region.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Workforce availability
The PILOT term sheet hard-codes 200 full-time positions at or above 150% of the statewide average wage; Louisiana Central facilitated the project and coordinated regional due-diligence review.
Partners: Louisiana Central (regional economic-development organization)
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Lodging & housing pressure
Not in the public record
No public reporting quantifies lodging or housing pressure around the Boyce build.
Roads & public services
LDEQ issued a May 27, 2026 citation for failure to control particulate emissions after citizen complaints about construction dust; the company says a corrective product was applied and conditions improved.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Residents pressed officials on NDAs, emergency-generator noise, and outage priority at a June 23, 2026 town hall; Cleco states the project pays its full infrastructure cost with no expected residential rate increase.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Local tax-base exposure
The term sheet front-loads parish revenue — $27.4M in year 1 plus $18M per year for three years to regional taxing bodies — but the fee declines over time, and final distribution of the $18M payments was unresolved as of KALB's reporting.
KALB News Channel 5 · 2026-06-25 ↗Edit the inputs to compare an ad-valorem proxy against a PILOT discount, construction labor hours, and peak power demand relative to an editable parish consumption baseline.
Ad-valorem proxy
$396,000,000
PILOT proxy
$217,800,000
Construction job hours
4,160,000
Demand vs parish use
3.1x
Delta Forge 1 is Applied Digital's company-announced name for the Louisiana AI factory campus near Boyce in Rapides Parish. Local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename for the same campus.
Applied Digital Project Lightning Louisiana is a legacy search phrase for the Rapides Parish project tracked here as Delta Forge 1. Applied Digital's official project name is Delta Forge 1; local reporting documented Project Lightning as an internal development codename, but reviewed operator primary sources do not establish it as an official project name.
Applied Digital says Delta Forge 1 is designed for 430 MW of total utility power across two facilities, enabling up to 300 MW of critical IT load. Cleco is the confirmed serving utility; no project-specific LPSC docket or approval was identified in the reviewed record.
Applied Digital's Louisiana AI factory is in Rapides Parish near Boyce. LouisianAI routes Boyce data center, Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Rapides Parish AI factory, and Project Lightning searches to this canonical project profile and the Rapides Parish hub.
Applied Digital and Louisiana Economic Development both say initial Delta Forge 1 operations are targeted for mid-2027, subject to construction execution, utility delivery, and final site buildout.
Delta Forge 1 is tracked at Verification needed and 672 acres, with 430 MW of power capacity where public sources support the number.
Current tracked figures show 200 permanent jobs and 1,000 construction jobs, subject to source verification.
A PILOT is a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes structure negotiated locally; this page tracks the public artifacts needed to compare ad-valorem exposure with negotiated payments.
Under construction. Exact phase delivery dates remain tied to operator updates, utility milestones, parish permits, and regulatory filings.
Delta Forge 1 is tracked in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
Applied Digital is the operator listed for Delta Forge 1.
Water use is tracked as a verification item because definitive cooling and withdrawal figures usually appear in permits, utility exhibits, or operator environmental disclosures.
Louisiana data-center incentives can include Act 730 sales/use tax treatment and local PILOT structures; the exact package should be verified against state, parish, and operator documents.
The page tracks substations, transmission watch corridors, and utility filings as source-backed signals rather than engineering-grade interconnection maps.
Confidence labels distinguish seed, reported, and verified claims so readers can separate early intelligence from document-backed facts.
Cite this page or subscribe to filings that mention Delta Forge 1.
LouisianAI methodology and reuse guardrails; not an independent project fact source.
Local governance artifact covering PILOT advancement.
Regional reporting tying parish rezoning actions to Boyce site.
Early-phase reporting naming Applied Digital pursuit.
Primary parish civil records portal for instrument retrieval.
SEC-hosted company source confirming Delta Forge 1 construction, 430 MW total utility design, up to 300 MW critical IT load, more-than-600-acre framing, and mid-2027 operations target.
Utility source confirming Cleco service, Rapides Parish, more than 1,000 construction jobs, about 200 long-term jobs, and customer-cost safeguards.
Records-request reporting citing the 672.52-acre EEIDD application, the approximately 300-acre initial two-building scope, and future-use acreage.
Primary securities disclosure for a development facility supporting new data center projects; it does not identify Delta Forge 1, Louisiana acreage, or project capex.
Local reporting documenting the Project Lightning internal codename, a 672-acre acquired site, and visible construction activity near Boyce.
Primary state-law lookup surface for Act 730 sales/use tax exemption and local PILOT diligence.