The data center boom is sweeping across the country and Texas has garnered more proposals for new centers than almost any other state. If every planned project were to go forward, it would mean nearly 9 gigawatts (GW) of additional electricity demand, or just over 1 Bcf/d of natural gas. That’s enough to power the entire country of Switzerland. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll check out the biggest planned data centers across the Lone Star State and give a quick rundown on where things stand for each one.
Texas easily ranks among the nation’s top states for existing data centers, with only Virginia edging it out in both data center count and associated power demand. Texas is also competing for the top spot in brand-new developments, with more than 10 hyperscale campuses announced and dozens more planned — not to mention community-changing projects like Stargate and Data City that are in the works (more on this below).
As we discussed recently in Won’t Get Fooled Again, we’ve been grappling with the challenge of tracking and ranking data center projects in Texas and Louisiana, in part to help us better assess the likely impact of their power and gas demand on Gulf Coast gas markets for our proprietary Arrow Model. In that blog, we explained that we’re using a scoring system that assigns each project a score from 1 to 3 based on public information. It ranks a 1 if the project has an offtaker, a 2 if it also controls the site, and a 3 if construction is underway. Projects missing these criteria don’t make it into our detailed forecasts.
The Arrow Model carves up the region into pipeline “corridors” (aka arrows) that are used to determine changes in the region’s inflows, outflows and flows within each state via groups of pipes that serve similar markets from comparable supply sources. Data centers have been emerging as an important data input in the model because it’s likely their ongoing development will result in significant bump-ups in both power and gas demand in various parts of Texas and Louisiana.
Many of you have asked which proposed data centers are on our list and how we rank them. Here’s a partial answer, namely a list (in no specific order) of the largest data centers proposed in Texas that will need 300 megawatts (MW) of power or more. (Look for a companion blog on Louisiana data centers soon.)
Figure 1. Proposed Texas Data Centers. Source: RBN
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About the song
“God Blessed Texas” was written by Porter Howell and Brady Seals and appears as the sixth song on Little Texas’ second studio album, Big Time. Released as the second single in July 1993, it went to #4 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles charts. The song, which celebrates Texas pride, is still used at many Texas sporting events. Personnel on the record were: Tim Rushlow (lead, backing vocals, acoustic guitar), Porter Howell (lead guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals), Dwayne O’Brien (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Duane Rogers (bass, backing vocals), Brady Seals (keyboards, backing vocals) and Del Gray (drums).
Big Time was recorded at Ardent, Crosstown Studios and Studio 6 in Memphis, and Masterfonics, Mesa Studios, Scruggs Sound Studio and Treasure Isle in Nashville during 1992-93. Produced by Doug Gray, Chrisy Di Napoli and James Stroud, the album was released in May 1993. It went to #6 on the Billboard Top Country and #55 on the Billboard 200 Albums charts. It has been certified 2x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Four singles were released from the LP.
Little Texas is a country music band formed in Nashville in 1988. They released their debut studio album, First Time for Everything, in 1991. They have released six studio albums, a live album, four compilation albums and 20 singles. They have won an ACM Award and a CMA Award. Eight people have passed through the group since its formation. They broke up in 1997 and re-formed in 2004. Del Gray, Dwayne O'Brien and Duane Rogers, with lead guitarist Porter Howell on lead vocals, still perform as Little Texas. They are currently on tour at venues across the U.S.
Comments
hi, it looks like there maybe confusion in the article about taylor county (abilene area) and taylor city (austin area). In the Stargate paragraph you mention "Taylor City Council granted rezoning" but i don't think that can be correct?
also the intro phrase "The Stargate in Taylor" might be improved with "The Stargate in Taylor County" for clarity.
i don't know the relevant geography super well, so please forgive me if i'm confused on this :-)
Thanks so much for your comment. You're spot-on. It is in Taylor County and was approved by the Taylor County Commissioners. We are changing this now. Thanks for reaching out to us. We appreciate it.
Fantastic article! Are you planning on doing a similar look at planned data center construction on the west coast and its impacts on NG production/pricing - especially in the Rockies region? I think it would be an interesting comparison piece to this one.
Thanks for your comments, and that's an excellent suggestion. We'll certainly be looking into data centers on the West Coast at some point.