The cloud giant Amazon is building an island power supply with 7.65 gigawatts in Texas. The CO2 emissions could dwarf all US coal-fired power plants.
To satisfy the enormous demand for computing power in the AI era, Amazon is pursuing a highly controversial initiative: The online giant, which is also one of the global cloud hyperscalers with its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, plans to build a huge data center campus in Texas that is to be powered by its own gigantic gas power plant with an output of 7.65 gigawatts (GW). It would be the largest natural gas power plant ever built in the USA.
As research by industry media Distilled and Cleanview shows, Amazon has acquired land and obtained permits in Pecos County, Texas, for a project called “GW Ranch”. The plans reveal a facility of historic proportions: a total of 35 gas turbines are to supply the data complex.
To circumvent grid connection bottlenecks, the facility will initially operate as an island solution, completely isolated from the Texas power grid. Satellite images already confirm clearing work on the site. Amazon had previously submitted building applications for the first three buildings for the operation of the data center.
Emissions exceed large coal-fired power plants
The scale of the project is causing unease. A permit issued by the Texas authorities allows the gas power plant to emit up to 33 million tons of CO₂ per year. Should this upper limit be reached, the facility would become the largest single source of pollution in the USA, even surpassing the most emission-intensive coal-fired power plant in the country.
While companies rarely utilize their maximum values fully, the project is in stark contrast to Amazon’s own climate protection initiative. As part of its self-imposed “Climate Pledge”, the corporation committed to achieving complete climate neutrality by 2040. In reality, however, the tech giant’s emissions have been noticeably rising again for some time. Amazon defends the project, pointing out that the company is responsible for the power supply of its own operations. By generating power on-site, electricity prices for Texas households will not be burdened. Furthermore, the plan is to gradually connect the campus to the public grid as soon as sufficient capacity is available.
The company also seeks to reassure regarding water consumption: only saline groundwater, unsuitable for agriculture or drinking, will be used for cooling. For existing data centers in Texas, Amazon has also enabled around ten GW of CO₂-free energy through 40 projects, according to its own statements.
Widespread resistance to data centers
Nevertheless, the project is meeting with an extremely skeptical public. In the USA, resistance against the unbridled construction of AI data centers is currently growing across all political camps. Local residents are concerned about noise, air pollution, enormous land consumption, and the immense water requirements in drought regions. Added to this is the fear of overloaded power grids and rising energy prices for consumers. In several US states and municipalities, resident protests have already led to the first construction halts and moratoriums.
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The initiative fits into a broader trend. To meet the enormous AI demand, corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Meta are also increasingly resorting to grid-independent individual solutions based on natural gas. Since the beginning of 2025 alone, nearly 60 such “Behind-the-Meter” projects with a total capacity of 90 GW have been announced in the USA. For example, Microsoft is building a 2-GW gas power plant in direct proximity in Pecos County together with Chevron.
For Amazon, the project at the GW Ranch Campus, which is being implemented by developer Pacifico Energy and will later be supplemented with solar and battery storage, is just the beginning. The company is already negotiating another project in Pennsylvania with a 4.5-GW gas power plant. Given the scarcity of computing capacity, grid-independent fossil fuel power plants thus apparently remain the preferred emergency solution for tech giants, despite growing headwinds.
Nuclear power as a beacon of hope?
In addition to natural gas, US hyperscalers are relying on nuclear power to secure the round-the-clock, supposedly CO₂-free electricity required for AI data centers. Microsoft has agreed with the utility Constellation Energy to restart the decommissioned Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor in Pennsylvania to exclusively purchase electricity from there starting in 2028. Amazon bought a stake in a nuclear power plant from Talen Energy. Google is investing in contracts for future small modular reactors (SMRs).
The US government, under President Donald Trump, is financially and regulatorily promoting the expansion of nuclear energy to secure leadership in the AI race. However, such initiatives face bureaucratic hurdles, grid concerns from energy regulators, and the unresolved nuclear waste problem. Therefore, in the short term, fossil fuel gas power plants will continue to fill the electricity gaps.
(nen)