Topic
On-site power plants permitted and built without utility or independent system operator approval.
Chevron says Gov. Greg Abbott's moratorium on new data center permits could delay the investment decision on its nearly 3-gigawatt Kilby project until 2027. For one of the largest new US data center projects, the date now depends mainly on a state permit.
Reality
The September 21 directive tells Texas environmental regulators to stop all data center permits until two state audits finish. A dedicated gas plant behind the meter still needs an air permit from the same agency.
Reality
A Form D filed on September 18 shows one investor and $1.5 million sold out of $6 million. At the $0.04 per kilowatt-hour SovAI advertises, one 100-megawatt site would invoice about $35 million of electricity a year.
Reality
OpenAI's letter of intent with Sur Energy heads a 1,450MW queue of announced Patagonian projects, and the developers behind it want prospective tenants walking the sites in February and agreements signed this year.
Reality
US data centres drew about 25GW in 2024, and BloombergNEF has them at 106GW by 2035. On that arithmetic, the question for anyone planning a cluster is when the megawatts arrive, not when the GPUs ship.
Reality
BloombergNEF tracks 99 on-site gas plants totalling 126 gigawatts. Run at normal rates they would add about a fifth to US power sector emissions, with no utility or grid operator vote.
Reality