Amazon Behind Massive Private Gas Plant for New Data Centers
- Amazon is developing a data center campus in Pecos County, Texas, featuring an on-site natural gas power plant permitted to release 33 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, potentially making it the country's largest single source of climate pollution.
- High demand for artificial intelligence has triggered a data center boom, with facilities seeking 474 gigawatts of electricity—approximately 90 percent of new power requests on the Texas grid—prompting tech companies to invest in fossil fuel sources.
- The United States has at least 82 data center-linked gas generators in development, which could collectively emit enough carbon dioxide in one year to rival the output of half the passenger cars in the country.
- Republican Governor Greg Abbott paused new data center projects in Texas this week, ordering state regulators to audit proposed facilities because, as he stated, "Texans must come first" regarding grid capacity.
- Amazon said it is "exploring opportunities for solar energy and battery storage on site" while backing 40 renewable projects in Texas and designing the Pecos facility to transition to grid-connected service eventually.
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14 Articles
It will be able to emit more than 30 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year.
New Amazon data center in TX could be single largest source of climate pollution in the United States
According to a report from The New York Times, Amazon confirmed on Friday that it is investing in a large-scale natural-gas-fired power plant tied to a sprawling new data center in Pecos County, Texas — a facility that environmental records suggest could become the single largest source of climate pollution in the United States. The […]
AI Data Centers Are Causing Unfathomable Amounts of Air Pollution, and It Gets Worse With Each New One They Build
The amount of pollution spilling out of fossil-fuel generators is astounding. In the United States, this explosion of emissions is led by states like Texas, which on a global scale is comparable only to China in terms of new infrastructure powered by dead dinosaurs. And as more data centers crop up throughout the US, that problem — of rising emissions linked to the accelerating demand for any kind of electricity — is only going to get worse. Acc…
Amazon is investing in a massive gas power plant in Texas. This project threatens to become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States. The tech company needs the extra energy to do more with artificial intelligence, which requires a great deal of computing power.
Amazon is investing in a massive gas power plant in Texas. This project threatens to become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States. The tech company needs the extra energy to do more with artificial intelligence, which requires a great deal of computing power.
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