May 7, 2026
Neighborhoods might be fighting against data centers in their area, but Nvidia and a California startup are betting those homeowners would be okay if their homes became the data centers.
It's an unusual ask in the current environment, but the two companies believe the promise of "heavily discounted" energy and internet bills could sway homeowners.
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California-based Span has teamed with the tech giant to create fractional data centers, via nodes called XFRA units, that can be put on the side of homes and small businesses. Working as a cluster, they can supplement or replace large data centers, the company says.
These XFRA units will use technology from NVIDIA including a liquid-cooled, fanless component inside the server. “The design helps eliminate the noise typically associated with data centers—a frequent complaint in communities near large facilities” says Realtor.com (1).
The fractional centers would take advantage of unused electrical capacity on local grids, and would allow AI cloud providers to draw from them as needed.
This is more than theoretical. The company has already conducted testing of prototype nodes with paying customers — and this fall, it plans to deploy them in 100 new construction homes in the southwestern U.S. (2)
Assuming that goes well, the company hopes to begin scaling the network to an annual capacity of more than 1 gigawatt.
Lowering bills
The advantages for data center users are fairly obvious: more capacity, more quickly. The carrot for homeowners is savings.
Span says the smart panel and battery backup will not cost the homeowner or business hosting them anything — and people who have them will receive discounted rates for their electricity or internet.
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Exactly how big of a discount wasn't made clear, but Span CRO Ryan Harris told pv magazine USA (3) that homeowners who lived in areas where XFRA units provided the most value could see "discounted electricity up to and including free electricity and free internet access."
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The risks
Span says its smart panels can pinpoint energy that's not being used — and the backup battery will help with any surges. But some homeowners may still be wary after the past couple of years. Severe fluctuations in climate have strained the power supply in several states and broken it in others.
In February 2021, the Texas power grid failed, leaving more than 4 million customers without power and resulting in at least 246 deaths (4). The state narrowly averted a much worse crisis. At its peak, the grid was just 4 minutes and 37 seconds (5) away from a total, weeks- or months-long blackout.
Summer heat waves are getting worse as well, with the Martinez Lake community in Arizona hitting a jaw-dropping 110 degrees Fahrenheit (6) in March of this year.
Span says the XFRA units shouldn't increase these problems. XFRA, it says, converts underutilized behind-the-meter power capacity into compute. For most modern, single-family homes, the standard electrical service size is 200 amps. Span says the typical maximum concurrent power use from those homes is 80 amps. Even with another 40 amps as a safety reserve, that leaves 80 underutilized amps of capacity per home (7).
"Span's unique and differentiated intellectual property in power controls enables us to improve the utilization of existing grid infrastructure," said Arch Rao, founder and CEO of Span in a statement (8). "We have successfully deployed this capability to accelerate home electrification, unlock new home construction, and increase utility grid utilization."
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Realtor.com (1); pv magazine USA (2),(3); Texas Department of State Health Services (4); KUT (5); NBC News (6); XFRA (7); Span (8)
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Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
