Amazon Builds 7.65-Gigawatt Texas Gas Plant for Data Centers, With 33 Million Tonne Emissions Permit

Amazon is building a natural gas power plant in Pecos County, West Texas, to supply electricity to its new large-scale data centers. The plant will install 35 gas turbines with a total generating capacity of 7.65 gigawatts. In its initial phase, it will not be connected to the Texas public grid; the power produced will be dedicated exclusively to Amazon's data centers. Amazon has confirmed the purchase of the site and plans to procure electricity from the project.

The project has received emissions permits from relevant Texas authorities, allowing up to 33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Monitoring data from data-tracking firm Cleanview shows that this permitted cap exceeds that of the largest coal-fired power plant currently in the United States. Although actual emissions from the plant are unlikely to reach the permitted ceiling, the allowance is still higher than that of existing large coal facilities.

With rapid growth in computing demand in the artificial intelligence sector, electricity consumption by data centers has surged. To meet power needs, several technology companies, including Meta and Google, have begun building their own power generation facilities and have re-adopted energy sources such as natural gas and coal. The Trump administration has also recently pushed to ease regulatory restrictions on such high-pollution power plants.