Texas regulators approved a fleet of 93 gas-powered turbines Wednesday to support a project aiming to be the country’s largest data center complex, despite concerns from nearby residents about the environmental impact.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s approval gives Fermi America — a data center developer co-founded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Texas energy investor Toby Neugebauer — the green light to install more than 5 gigawatts of gas power on its site outside of Amarillo.
On its own, that would make Fermi’s Project Matador larger than any existing fossil fuel plant in the country, with the capacity to power more than 1.2 million homes on the main Texas grid.
TCEQ regulators recently approved a separate application from Pacifico Energy to build 7.65 GW of gas power for a private grid data center in West Texas.
