Project Washington

New Castle County, DE

Project details

Capacity 1200 MW reported. Status canceled. City . County New Castle. State DE. Grid .

Overview

Spotlight Delaware reported that Starwood Digital Ventures withdrew its Superior Court appeal, leaving Project Washington blocked under the current plan. Delaware Public Media reported DNREC’s February 2026 finding that the project would violate the Coastal Zone Act.

Spotlight Delaware’s August 28, 2026 story says plans for the massive campus near Delaware City are at a dead end in their current form. It was the largest data-center proposal in the state. Earlier in 2026, Environmental Secretary Greg Patterson ruled that the plans would violate the Coastal Zone Act, the 1971 law that limits new heavy industry along Delaware’s shorelines. Starwood appealed; a state board upheld Patterson. Starwood then appealed to Delaware Superior Court and, in early July, voluntarily withdrew that appeal with no public acknowledgment, two days after the legislature passed stricter data-center bills that Governor Matt Meyer later signed. With no remaining challenge to Patterson’s ruling, the project is not allowed to move forward under its current design. Starwood spokesman Jim Lamb told Spotlight Delaware the company “is continuing its work with state and local regulators, labor, and the entire community to find a pathway forward.” Patterson’s decision, as recounted there, pointed to 516 backup diesel generators and 2.5 million gallons of stored diesel, which he called “entirely unprecedented.” Expert estimates cited by Spotlight Delaware put the campus’s electricity use at about that of nearly 1 million homes.

Delaware Public Media reported on February 4, 2026 that DNREC denied permission that Tuesday, concluding in a nine-page decision that the proposed use is not allowed in the Coastal Zone. DNREC said the project could pollute at heavy-industry levels through those 516 generators and a storage tank farm of more than five acres holding more than 2.5 million gallons of diesel. When fully operational, the center would use 1.2 gigawatts, about half the electricity currently used by the entire state. Starwood said that day it remained “absolutely confident the project will be successfully completed.” Dustyn Thompson of Sierra Club Delaware called the DNREC decision a monumental win and told Delaware Public Media he did not think it was a no forever. New Castle County Councilmen Dave Carter and Kevin Caneco praised the ruling. House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown said it validated resident concerns about air pollution, large-scale fuel storage, and community health.

The public map lists one canceled building. Reported campus capacity is 1,200 MW.

Map records

Map entries are not a physical building count; campus and building scope may differ across sources.

Sources