A New Google-Funded Data Center Will Be Powered by a Massive Gas Plant | WIRED

CommentLoader-

Save StorySave this story

CommentLoader-

Save StorySave this story

A new data center being built with investments from Google will be partly powered by a natural gas project that emits the yearly emissions equivalent of putting more than 970,000 additional gas-powered cars on the road.

According to a Texas state air permit application, the Goodnight data center campus in Armstrong County, Texas, will be partly powered by private natural gas turbines that will emit more than 4.5 million tons of greenhouse gases each year. This is more than ten times higher the yearly emissions of an average natural gas plant, and more emissions per year than an average coal plant.

Michael Thomas, the founder of Cleanview and author of a new report on Google’s power strategy for its data centers, says that Google’s focus on and continued commitment to renewables is often held up by environmental groups as an example of Big Tech doing things right. But the plans for this campus, he alleges, illustrate how even big tech companies with stated climate goals and a public commitment to renewable energy are exploring fossil fuel investments as the AI race heats up.

While the Goodnight campus is not the biggest fossil fuel project planned in the US to power data centers, nor one that will create the most emissions, the fact that the company is seemingly now exploring private, off-the-grid gas power for their data centers “suggests that something is changing,” he says.

AI infrastructure company Crusoe began constructing the data center in May, according to local media reports. In November, Google announced that it would be making a $40 billion AI investment in Texas. As part of that investment, the company joined Crusoe to help build the data center already under construction in Armstrong County.

The air permit application, filed in January, specifies that of the six buildings at the campus, the first four will be connected to the electric grid, while the fifth and sixth buildings will be powered by the on-site gas plant. In response to questions from WIRED for this story, Google spokesperson Chrissy Moy said the company does not have a “contract in place” for gas power at this facility.

In addition to more than 900 megawatts of natural gas, the Goodnight campus would include 265 megawatts of wind power, according to a separate interconnection request made with Texas’s Public Utility Commission. Google says it does have an “agreement” for this wind energy.

Moy added that the company is “signed on to the data center campus,” but noted that “a permit for an energy project doesn't necessarily confirm contracted energy plans for the data center, and isn't mutually exclusive to other energy sources.”

As data center developers face lengthy wait times to connect to electricity grids and rising concerns over consumer electric bills, they’re increasingly turning to building their own energy, or what’s known as behind-the-meter power. For these projects, gas is king; data centers are now driving a US boom in natural gas. Nearly 100 gigawatts of natural-gas fired power are currently in development throughout the US solely to power data centers, according to research published by the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor in January.

Per the Global Energy Monitor research, there are at least 15 projects in development across the US that are larger than the Goodnight campus. Several of these projects have only just been announced or are still in the development phase, and have not yet filed air permits detailing just how much greenhouse gases they will emit. But the numbers that have been made public are jaw-dropping: OpenAI and Oracle’s Project Jupiter in New Mexico’s air permit application declares that it could emit 14 million tons of greenhouse gases each year, more than three times as much as emissions from the Goodnight campus. Meanwhile, Crusoe is developing several other projects in Texas as part of the massive Stargate campus; one of the gas projects involved would emit almost 8 million tons of greenhouse gases, according to the state permit application.

“Grid growth can't match AI demand, so a pragmatic 'all-of-the-above' strategy is essential—with gas as a critical bridge,” Cully Cavness, the cofounder and president of Crusoe, told WIRED in a statement. “This isn't the destination; it's the foundation we build on while investing in batteries, solar, wind, and small modular nuclear reactors. We're not waiting for a carbon-free grid—we're building the path to one."

Other tech companies are publicly embracing new gas build-outs. This week, Microsoft signed a deal with oil giant Chevron to supply up to 2.5 gigawatts of gas power for a data center in West Texas.

For his part, Thomas sees behind-the-meter power potentially becoming the main power strategy for data center developers.

“It’s important to note how novel this is,” he says. “This is not something that any busines