A new Amazon data center could become the single largest source of environmental pollution in the US. The company, which already operates more data centers than anyone else worldwide, is building a natural gas power plant in Pecos County, Texas, to power the facility at the same site. The case shows the price the AI boom is exacting on energy supply.
33 million tons of CO2 per year
According to the project permits, the plant would generate up to 7.65 gigawatts of power using 35 gas turbines. It's authorized to emit up to 33 million tons of CO2 per year, more than any other power plant in the country. The facility runs by burning natural gas, solely to cover the enormous electricity demand of the attached AI data center.
That stands in sharp contrast to Amazon's own climate goals. In 2019, the company co-founded the Climate Pledge, a voluntary coalition that now includes more than 700 companies, and committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. In reality, its emissions have been rising steadily for several years, which experts attribute mainly to the expansion of data centers for the AI boom. Amazon acknowledges the conflict but stands by the goal. The world looks different now than when the coalition was founded, a spokeswoman said, but the commitment hasn't changed. Microsoft has made similar statements, insisting it remains committed to its 2030 sustainability pledge despite carbon-heavy AI expansion.
The trend toward on-site power
More and more hyperscalers and data center operators are switching from grid connections to their own on-site power generation. Two reasons drive this "behind the meter" strategy. For one, it takes a long time to connect new, extremely power-hungry data centers to the public grid. For another, public opposition is growing because such facilities permanently push up electricity prices across entire regions.
Many companies are also pursuing nuclear and renewable energy, such as Microsoft's deal around the Three Mile Island nuclear plant or Meta's agreement for up to one gigawatt of orbital solar power. Even so, natural gas is currently the preferred option because it can be deployed quickly and at scale. The US government backs such projects for data centers and promotes oil, natural gas, and coal over renewable sources. For the industry's climate footprint, that's a troubling development, especially as AI keeps driving power demand sharply upward.