Amazon will build a massive gas power plant in Texas.
Amazon has confirmed it is financing a massive, private gas power plant in Texas that could become the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
It is the latest example of tech giants going off the grid to get their AI operations online faster.
The news was first reported by market intelligence company Cleanview, which reviewed satellite imagery to connect three data center construction permits filed last week by Amazon to the gas plant, which is being developed by Pacifico Energy and is known as GW Ranch.
Previously filed permits for the plant show it would have 35 turbines and generate 7.65 gigawatts, larger than any gas plant currently operating in the United States.
A bigger facility, at 9.2 gigawatts, is planned in Ohio under a public-private partnership involving SoftBank. That plant would connect to the grid as well as power a data center.
The Pecos County, Texas, plant would be permitted to emit more than 30 million metric tons of greenhouse gases a year, more than any other single source in the country, though facilities rarely emit at their permitted ceiling.
Amazon said that by generating its own power, it would avoid passing the cost on to ordinary Americans, whose electricity bills have spiked as utilities charge consumers for the new infrastructure feeding the AI boom.
