Oracle tries to appease Stargate data center opponents with renewables push

Oracle issued a request for proposals on September 8 for 2 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in New Mexico as local opposition threatens to delay the $165 billion Project Jupiter data center it is building for OpenAI. Oracle and OpenAI had originally planned 2.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation that could have emitted 14 million tons of CO2 per year, but the project now relies on natural gas-consuming fuel cells, and New Mexico's Land Office twice blocked requests to run a natural gas pipeline through state lands in Doña Ana County. Cleanview CEO Michael Thomas wrote that the 2 GW of renewables "wouldn't directly power the data center," calling the matching program "synthetic.

Oracle’s proposed investment in 2 gigawatts of renewable energy projects for New Mexico comes as local opposition could delay development of the Project Jupiter data center that Oracle is building for OpenAI. The two tech companies are developing the $165 billion Project Jupiter data center in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as part of the broader Stargate AI infrastructure project https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/01/trump-announces-500b-stargate-ai-infrastructure-project-with-agi-aims/ announced by President Donald Trump in 2025. But Project Jupiter faces local protests and court battles over concerns about its environmental impacts—and the latest Oracle announcement https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-issues-rfp-for-2gw-of-renewable-energy-2026-09-08/ on September 8 seeking proposals for renewable energy projects does not change the fact that the data center will be powered by fuel cells that consume natural gas. “Like all matching programs, this would be synthetic in the sense that 2 GW of renewables wouldn’t directly power the data center,” wrote Michael Thomas, CEO of the Cleanview data platform that tracks renewable energy and data center projects, in a LinkedIn post https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7503552897905795072/ . Oracle and OpenAI had originally planned to build 2.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation that could have resulted in 14 million tons of CO<sub 2</sub emissions per year, Thomas pointed out. That would have effectively “wiped out 20 years of carbon emissions reductions in the state of New Mexico,” he wrote in his post. State residents and environmental groups have rallied in opposition to Project Jupiter with protests and lawsuits https://sourcenm.com/2026/08/21/nm-residents-protest-pending-project-jupiter-air-quality-permit-outside-environment-department/ . New Mexico’s Land Office twice blocked requests https://www.nmstatelands.org/2026/07/15/commissioner-garcia-richard-again-denies-request-to-run-portion-of-project-jupiter-pipeline-through-state-lands/ to run a natural gas pipeline to the data center in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County. Such opposition likely prompted the tech companies’ Project Jupiter plan to pivot from gas turbines to fuel-cell technology, https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-borderplex-and-bloom-energy-to-power-project-jupiter-with-fuel-cell-technology-2026-04-27/ which produces electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion.