Site-scoring playbook
Screen candidate sites with kill gates first, then an illustrative weighted score: power availability and speed-to-MW, interconnection and permitting, power price, land, water and climate, incentives. Adjust the weights to your program.
Site-scoring playbook
Kill gates come first: power or interconnect at ≤2, or water or land/zoning at ≤1, disqualifies a site no matter how the weighted score averages out. This is an illustrative weighting template: power availability carries the most weight, and the 0–10 scores are your judgment calls, so record the evidence behind each one. Adjust the weights and add a latency gate for inference workloads before ranking real candidates → Ch 3.13.
Worked decision — stated assumptions
All ledger inputs are assumed teaching values chosen to exercise this chapter’s method; they are not market quotes, OEM performance claims or operating records. Arithmetic uses the full entered precision.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Power availability / speed-to-MW | 7 /10 |
| Interconnect & permitting | 6 /10 |
| Power price / PPA | 6 /10 |
| Land & expandability | 7 /10 |
| Water & climate | 6 /10 |
| Incentives / tax | 5 /10 |
Decide whether candidate A merits the next diligence spend. Assume judgment scores of 7, 6, 6, 7, 6 and 5 for power, interconnect, price, land, water and incentives. The displayed rubric weights those axes 30%, 20%, 15%, 15%, 10% and 10%. These are an illustrative investment preference, not executed agreements or measurements. The weighted trace is (7×30 + 6×20 + 6×15 + 7×15 + 6×10 + 5×10) / 10 = 63.5/100: “Workable with mitigation.”
Advance A to evidence collection under this rubric; hold a site commitment until the service date, land rights, thermal/water design and workload latency are settled (Chapter 3.13). Change the power score to 2: the score becomes 48.5 and the power kill gate disqualifies A. The crossover is power ≤2, regardless of incentives. Reallocate diligence to a candidate with a viable power path.
Guide derivation. Method and handoff: Chapter 3.13 — Market Clusters & the Site-Scoring Playbook.
These are transparent screening estimates, not final designs, financial advice, or project approvals. Replace every default with current project data and have the responsible project authorities validate the result. You can save, share a permalink, or export to CSV; see the full calculator suite.