Union County

Updates, newest first

1. April 30, 2026 CoreWeave data center at the NEST campus (former Merck headquarters), Kenilworth · The Leader reported residents raising concerns about the power grid, safety and the environment. (The Leader (Westfield), April 30, 2026; NJ Spotlight News, July 21, 2026)
2. Nov. 12, 2025 CoreWeave data center at the NEST campus (former Merck headquarters), Kenilworth · The NJEDA board approved a $250 million Next New Jersey Program - AI tax credit for CoreWeave in Kenilworth. (New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Nov. 12, 2025; New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Aug. 2026; Real Estate NJ, Nov. 25, 2025; Inside Climate News, Feb. 26, 2026)
3. Aug. 5, 2025 CoreWeave data center at the NEST campus (former Merck headquarters), Kenilworth · Commercial Observer reported CoreWeave bought the building and 27 adjacent acres from the owners' venture for $322 million. (Commercial Observer, Aug. 5, 2025)
4. May 15, 2025 CoreWeave data center at the NEST campus (former Merck headquarters), Kenilworth · The Kenilworth Planning Board voted 8-0 to approve CoreWeave's site plan (Application #25-003) to convert the lab building on a 36-acre lot into a data center, with 31 generators and a chiller yard. (Borough of Kenilworth Planning Board, May 15, 2025)
5. Oct. 24, 2024 CoreWeave data center at the NEST campus (former Merck headquarters), Kenilworth · CoreWeave signed a long-term lease for the 280,000-square-foot Building 11 at the NEST campus owned by an Onyx Equities and Machine Investment Group venture. (NJBIZ, Oct. 24, 2024)

Statewide

Next New Jersey Program – AI (A4558/S3432, P.L.2024, c.49, signed July 25, 2024): up to $500 million in state tax credits, run by NJEDA, for AI businesses and large-scale AI data centers that create at least 100 jobs paying 120% of the county median salary, invest at least $100 million and stay 10 years. NJEDA's board approved the program and its rules on March 12, 2025; its award list shows one approval, $250 million to CoreWeave for Kenilworth on Nov. 12, 2025, and marks the program closed in fiscal 2026. (New Jersey Economic Development Authority, July 25, 2024; New Jersey Economic Development Authority, March 12, 2025; New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Nov. 12, 2025; New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Aug. 2026) End Data Center Tax Credits Act (S4390/A5165, P.L.2026, c.77, approved Aug. 27, 2026; Senate 35-4 and Assembly 74-4 on June 30): takes the $250 million still uncommitted out of the Next New Jersey AI program and returns it to the Aspire and Emerge programs, per the Senate Budget Committee statement; the CoreWeave award already made is not affected. Bloomberg Law reported NJEDA had paused new applications on June 1 for an internal review. (New Jersey Legislature, Aug. 27, 2026; New Jersey Legislature (Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee), June 24, 2026; New Jersey Assembly Democrats, Aug. 28, 2026; Bloomberg Law, June 24, 2026) Large data center electricity law (A796/S731, P.L.2026, c.32, approved July 7, 2026; final votes Senate 27-11 and Assembly 59-18 on June 30): within 12 months the BPU must set, by order for each electric utility, standards for serving large data centers (a size threshold no higher than 50 MW, with co-owned or shared-site facilities counted together), so that other customers do not pay their grid or stranded costs, data centers have incentives to supply new clean power or storage of their own, and they are curtailed before homes in emergencies; each utility must then file a data center rate class and tariff within 180 days of the order. Senate floor amendments added a 10-year financial guarantee covering at least 85% of the supply requested and an exemption from certain provisions for data centers a utility approved for service before the law took effect. (New Jersey Legislature, July 7, 2026; New Jersey Legislature, July 7, 2026; New Jersey Legislature, June 18, 2026; New Jersey Monitor, July 7, 2026) An earlier version (A5462/S4307 in the 2024-2025 session), which would have had the BPU set a tariff for users drawing more than 100 MW, passed the Legislature but was pocket-vetoed when Gov. Phil Murphy left office in January 2026. (New Jersey Business & Industry Association, Jan. 21, 2026) Energy and water reporting (S3379/A4096, P.L.2026, c.75, approved Aug. 27, 2026; Senate 39-0 and Assembly 76-3 on final passage): data center owners and operators must report twice a year to the BPU on overall energy use, the energy that goes to cooling and to computing equipment, the most water used in a day and where it comes from, and on-site and backup power. (New Jersey Legislature, Aug. 27, 2026; Office of the Governor of New Jersey, Aug. 27, 2026) Executive actions: Gov. Mikie Sherrill's Executive Order No. 2 (signed Jan. 20, 2026) directed the BPU, among other things, to address load growth from data centers, as the BPU described it; her May 27, 2026 data center plan set four goals (fair-share energy rules, energy and water reporting, statewide community benefits agreement standards, prevailing wage and local trades). On Aug. 25, 2026 the Department of Community Affairs sent towns community benefits agreement guidance by Local Finance Notice, and EDA, DEP and BPU set up technical assistance teams. (New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, March 5, 2026; New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Feb. 4, 2026; Office of the Governor of New Jersey, May 27, 2026; Office of the Governor of New Jersey, Aug. 27, 2026) Utility large-load tariffs: none of the sources reviewed showed a BPU docket for a data center or large-load tariff at PSE&G, JCP&L, Atlantic City Electric or Rockland Electric (utility filings under c.32 are due within 180 days of the BPU's standards order). In an Aug. 13, 2026 report release the BPU said it had started implementing the new law's requirements that data centers bring their own generation or accept lower-priority service. PSEG said in its second-quarter 2025 earnings call that large-load interconnection requests had reached 9.4 GW, about 90% or more from data centers, and that it expected only 10% to 20% of them to come online. (New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Aug. 13, 2026; New Jersey Legislature, July 7, 2026; DatacenterDynamics, Aug. 18, 2025) PJM capacity prices: the BPU reported that PJM's auction for the 2026/2027 delivery year cleared at the cap of $329.17/MW-day across the region, after the 2025/2026 auction's $269.92/MW-day (an 833% increase); in February 2026 the BPU said data center demand growth in PJM had contributed to high electricity rates. (New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, July 23, 2025; New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Feb. 4, 2026) Pinelands: the Pinelands Commission told a committee on March 27, 2026 that it had received no data center applications; under the Comprehensive Management Plan data centers are not permitted in the Preservation Area District or Special Agricultural Production Areas, and other management areas leave very limited room for them. (New Jersey Pinelands Commission, March 27, 2026) Local bans: counts differ by source and date. The New Jersey Monitor reported nearly three dozen towns with bans or restrictions (Aug. 20, 2026); the advocacy group Climate Revolution Action Network called Jackson the 38th town to ban data centers (Aug. 25); NJ.com put the number at roughly 100 towns (Oct. 16). No statewide moratorium bill was found among enacted laws; NJ Spotlight News reported a Pinelands Alliance petition asking for a three-year moratorium. (New Jersey Monitor, Aug. 20, 2026; Insider NJ (press release from Climate Revolution Action Network), Aug. 25, 2026; NJ.com (via Yahoo News), Oct. 16, 2026; NJ Spotlight News, July 21, 2026) New Jersey data centers →