Jurisdiction Index / US — Iowa (MISO)
US — Iowa (MISO)
JCI composite · as of · methodology v0
US — Iowa (MISO) scores 76.5/100 on the Compute Institute Jurisdiction Competitiveness Index (Tier 1, Advantaged), ranking #2 of 34 rated jurisdictions with a stable outlook, as of July 3, 2026 under methodology v0. Its strongest dimension is Capital & Ecosystem Depth at 8.7/10; its weakest is Power Availability & Deliverability at 6.6/10. 21 of 22 sub-factors are scored on E1–E2 evidence (data confidence A). The stable outlook is driven by 1 forward-looking signal (+0.00 net points, E3–E4 evidence): time-to-power (E3).
Dimension breakdown
Seven dimensions, each 0–10, weighted per methodology v0. JCI = Σ(dimension × weight) × 10.
Power Availability & Deliverability
Power Cost
Speed to Build
Regulatory & AI Policy Environment
Fiscal & Incentives
Capital & Ecosystem Depth
Stability & Execution Risk
Outlook drivers — Stable (+0.00 net points)
Forward-looking E3–E4 signals. They move the outlook only — never the base score.
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Time-to-power +0.00 pts as of
“Firm power for a new large load realistically lands in the ~3-4 year band. Alliant Energy's IUC-reviewed Morgan Valley Energy Center (three combustion turbines, 720 MW, near Fairfax in Linn County) is targeted to begin construction in Q2 2027 and enter service in Q2 2030, with Alliant seeking an Iowa Utilities Commission decision by December; the siting is driven in part by rising data-center demand near Cedar Rapids. Vertically integrated self-build paths are faster than merchant MISO-queue interconnection. (Original cited URL described the separate 'Prairie Creek' plant and was inaccessible; re-pointed to the article carrying the Morgan Valley 2027/2030 timeline.)”
Source: Corridor Business Journal (Alliant Morgan Valley / Linn County gas plant IUC timeline) (corridorbusiness.com)
Sub-factor scores and sources
Every base-scored input below carries E1–E2 evidence: a justification, an evidence-level grade, and a link to the underlying source document.
Power Availability & Deliverability — 6.6/10 (weight 20%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grid headroom 40% of dimension | 6 /10 | No moratorium and an active queue, but firm headroom is only moderate. MISO's official Generator Interconnection Queue tools/dashboards show a system-wide interconnection backlog on the order of ~227 GW (FERC approved a MISO queue cap, DPP-2026, to manage it), with Iowa alone hol... as of | MISO Generator Interconnection Queue (official) www.misoenergy.org | |
| Time-to-power 35% of dimension | — | Excluded — no E1–E2 evidence available; weaker evidence cannot enter a base score. | — | — |
| Energy mix & expandability 15% of dimension | 8 /10 | Multiple expansion pathways are legal and actively being deployed. EIA's official Iowa Electricity Profile reports 2024 net generation of 70,464,148 MWh (~70.5 TWh) with wind supplying 63% (the highest wind share of any U.S. state), alongside a renewable+storage-dominated interco... as of | EIA Iowa State Electricity Profile (Table 1, 2024) www.eia.gov | |
| Water availability 10% of dimension | 7 /10 | Iowa sits in low-to-medium baseline water-stress basins (Upper Mississippi/Missouri) per WRI Aqueduct, bounded by two major rivers plus substantial alluvial/bedrock aquifers and no water moratorium; scored slightly below 'abundant' and conservatively because the exact Iowa basin... as of | WRI Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas (Baseline Annual v4.0) www.wri.org |
Power Cost — 7.8/10 (weight 12.5%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial electricity price 60% of dimension | 8 /10 | Verified on EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A: Iowa industrial retail price 6.26 c/kWh (=$62.6/MWh) for April 2026, well below the US national industrial average of 8.66 c/kWh shown on the same table. Places Iowa near the top of the anchor band (10=<$45/MWh, 0=>$140/MWh; lin... as of | EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A www.eia.gov | |
| Price trajectory & exposure 25% of dimension | 7 /10 | Verified on the official EIA Iowa State Electricity Profile: wind is listed as Iowa's primary energy source, giving low fossil-fuel-price exposure, and Iowa's average retail price (9.34 c/kWh) ranks 45th nationally. Wind-dominant generation limits near-term commodity-price pass-t... as of | EIA Iowa State Electricity Profile (Table 1, 2024) www.eia.gov | |
| Cost certainty / contractability 15% of dimension | 8 /10 | Verified via SEC EDGAR: Alliant Energy Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 (accession 0000352541-26-000033, filed 2026-05-01) discloses that its Iowa utility (IPL) executed in April 2026 a long-term electric service agreement with a customer expecting to build a data c... as of | Alliant Energy Corp Form 10-Q Q1 FY2026 (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov |
Speed to Build — 7.7/10 (weight 17.5%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permitting regime 40% of dimension | 8 /10 | Iowa imposes no state siting board or Certificate of Need on data centers; the only state pre-construction permit is the Iowa DNR air-quality construction permit (issuing agency page confirmed live; covers CI/SI engines <400 HP, i.e. backup generators, via Iowa EASY Air), with al... as of | Iowa DNR — Air Quality Construction Permits (issuing agency) www.iowadnr.gov | |
| Observed construction velocity 35% of dimension | 8.5 /10 | Iowa is a proven hyperscale build market — Microsoft opened its first West Des Moines data center campus in 2012 and now operates five campuses (>600 acres, ~$5-6B invested), with a sixth campus approved in 2025 and construction slated to begin in 2026; concurrently QTS Cedar Rap... as of | Microsoft — 'Microsoft datacenters in Iowa' (operator publisher) local.microsoft.com | |
| Labor & supply capacity 25% of dimension | 6 /10 | Iowa's total workforce is only ~1.6M and its skilled-trades pool is correspondingly modest (BLS OEWS Iowa construction-and-extraction employment on the order of ~75-80k and electricians ~9-10k), adequate but strained by multiple concurrent hyperscale builds (Microsoft, Google, QT... as of | BLS OEWS — Iowa State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates (May 2025) www.bls.gov |
Regulatory & AI Policy Environment — 7.2/10 (weight 12.5%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI-specific law in force 35% of dimension | 6.5 /10 | Iowa enacted SF2417 (the 'Iowa Chatbot Safety Law', signed early May 2026 — sources indicate May 3, 2026; applies July 1, 2027), a narrow conversational-AI/minor-protection statute: mandatory AI disclosure to minor account holders, prohibitions on human-impersonation and simulate... as of | Iowa Legislature — Senate File 2417 (Enrolled Act) www.legis.iowa.gov | |
| DC-specific regulation 35% of dimension | 8 /10 | Iowa Code §423.3(95) is an enacted, favorable DC-specific framework: sales/use tax exemption for an eligible data center business making a minimum $200M Iowa investment within the first six years of operation at a physical location of at least 5,000 sq ft (aggregate), covering co... as of | Iowa Department of Revenue — Data Center Sales and Use Tax Incentives (Iowa Code 423.3(95)) revenue.iowa.gov | |
| Regulatory predictability 30% of dimension | 7 /10 | The §423.3(95) DC exemption is codified and non-discretionary — eligibility is ministerial (register via the Department's data-center registration form, file an annual report by January 31 each year, first report due Feb 2, 2026), not an agency-negotiated grant — and there is no... as of | Iowa Department of Revenue — Data Center Sales and Use Tax Incentives (Iowa Code 423.3(95)) revenue.iowa.gov |
Fiscal & Incentives — 7.4/10 (weight 10%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enacted incentives 40% of dimension | 9 /10 | Verified on the official Iowa Department of Revenue data-center page and corroborated by the official statute (Iowa Code 423.3(95)): an ENACTED 100% sales/use tax exemption for data center businesses investing $200M+ within six years, covering computers, equipment, cooling system... as of | Iowa Department of Revenue — Data Center Sales and Use Tax Incentives (Iowa Code 423.3(95)) revenue.iowa.gov | |
| Headline tax burden 40% of dimension | 6 /10 | Verified on the official Iowa Department of Revenue page: Iowa levies a graduated corporate income tax of 5.5%-7.1% (top rate 7.1%, effective Jan 1 2024), moderately high, plus a 6.00% state sales tax. Data-center computers/equipment/cooling/power infrastructure are fully exempt... as of | Iowa Department of Revenue - Corporate Income Tax Rates revenue.iowa.gov | |
| Incentive durability 20% of dimension | 7 /10 | Corrected after re-fetching the official Iowa Legislature statute (§423.3, subsection 95, Iowa Code 2026 edition), which is not a third-party mirror and confirmed to contain the exemption, the $200M/six-year minimum investment requirement, and the 80% clawback (95.e: failure to m... as of | Iowa Legislature - Iowa Code 423.3 (Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Act, Exemptions), subsection 95 www.legis.iowa.gov |
Capital & Ecosystem Depth — 8.7/10 (weight 12.5%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Committed capital 40% of dimension | 9 /10 | Announced/committed DC capex in Iowa is elite: Google's official blog announces an additional $7B in cloud/AI infrastructure over two years (new Cedar Rapids campus + Council Bluffs expansion) — both figure and locations verified on-page. Layered on top of prior multi-billion com... as of | Google official blog — new $7 billion investment in Iowa blog.google | |
| Ecosystem 30% of dimension | 8 /10 | Deep hyperscale operator + utility ecosystem: MidAmerican Energy (Berkshire Hathaway) reached 100% renewable energy delivered to its Iowa customers, with its wind fleet generating 27,000+ GWh from more than 3,400 wind turbines across three-dozen-plus wind farms (all figures verif... as of | MidAmerican Energy newsroom — 100% renewable milestone www.midamericanenergy.com | |
| Sovereign/anchor capital availability 30% of dimension | 9 /10 | Four of the largest global hyperscalers are anchored in-state with operational multi-billion campuses — Google (Council Bluffs, Cedar Rapids), Microsoft, Meta (Altoona), Apple (Waukee). The official City of West Des Moines news release (verified official gov publisher) documents... as of | Microsoft data center campus agreement — City of West Des Moines (official gov news) www.wdm.iowa.gov |
Stability & Execution Risk — 8.6/10 (weight 15%)
|
Sub-factor
|
Score
|
Justification
|
Evidence
|
Source
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Political/policy continuity 40% of dimension | 9 /10 | VERIFIED E1: Official Iowa Department of Revenue page confirms Iowa Code section 423.3(95) data-center incentive — quoted text: minimum investment of $200 million in an Iowa physical location within the first six years of operation, with the exemption for computers/other listed p... as of | Iowa Department of Revenue — Data Center Sales and Use Tax Incentives (Iowa Code 423.3(95)) revenue.iowa.gov | |
| Currency, transfer & convertibility 35% of dimension | 10 /10 | E2 (correctly labeled): Iowa transacts in the US dollar, an IMF-classified freely usable reserve currency with no exchange restrictions or capital-transfer controls on current or capital account, so profit repatriation and equipment-import payment face no convertibility friction... as of | IMF Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER) — United States www.imf.org | |
| Physical & geopolitical risk 25% of dimension | 6 /10 | VERIFIED E1: Official NOAA NCEI Iowa state-summary page confirms 86 billion-dollar disasters (1980-2024), 57 severe storms (66.3%), and a 2020-2024 annual average of 5.4 events (vs 1.9 full-period), corroborating the roughly tripled recent rate. The Aug-2020 derecho ($7.5B, costl... as of | NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters — Iowa State Summary www.ncei.noaa.gov |
Signals
Recent ingested source documents linked to this jurisdiction via extracted claims or triage mentions, newest first.
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· ENR - main · relevance 0.40
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· Data Center Dynamics · relevance 0.90
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· Data Center Dynamics · relevance 0.85
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· Data Center Dynamics · relevance 0.90
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· Data Center Dynamics · relevance 0.85
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www.legis.iowa.gov
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www.imf.org
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revenue.iowa.gov
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revenue.iowa.gov
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www.legis.iowa.gov
Scores are reproducible from the frozen inputs snapshot recorded at computation time (2026-07-03T18:55:25+00:00). See the full methodology for rubrics, weights, and the evidence ladder.