MS Solar Grid Data data center, New Orleans East, Louisiana

MS Solar Grid Data proposed a data center near Interstate 10 and Read Boulevard in New Orleans East, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, on land zoned for residential use. The plan surfaced in January 2026, and the New Orleans City Council stopped it on January 28, 2026 by creating a one-year interim zoning district that pauses any data center, server farm or crypto mining operation in the city. The company later withdrew the plan.

Both the site's own zoning and the city's zoning ordinance would have needed to change for the project to proceed, according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy, which noted the company "does not appear to be a solar developer." Councilman Jason Hughes, who represents New Orleans East, said: "If you don't want something in your own backyard, don't come put it in the backyards of my hardworking residents." Mayor Helena Moreno also opposed the plan, and residents said the phone number the company had given them was out of service.

The City Council ordered the City Planning Commission to write citywide data center rules. In July 2026 planning staff recommended banning data centers larger than 100,000 square feet and 20 megawatts of power citywide, while allowing smaller ones in some commercial, industrial and downtown districts, spaced at least three blocks from homes in industrial areas. The Planning Commission took up the recommendations at a July 28, 2026 meeting and was set to vote on the rules August 25, 2026; no result has been published.