Geothermal takes center stage in economic development policy
The City of Presidio’s bold attempt to harness geothermal power is on track, according to its boosters, who have watched what may have first been a pie in the sky idea take root and advance.
In his Big Bend Sentinel “Our Water Matters” column in July 2023, Trey Gerfers outlined the basics and potential of the sustainable power source. “Conventional geothermal energy is found in the form of steam and very hot water beneath the earth’s surface at depths of several feet to a few miles,” he wrote. “These reservoirs of liquid heat can be tapped and brought to the surface to turn turbines and generate electricity.” The areas around Presidio were already known to have opportunities to harvest the power.
Presidio City Administrator Pablo Rodriguez was excited about introducing another industry to the area — one that could potentially be the first of its kind in Texas. “Our friends to the north in the Permian Basin have oil underneath their feet,” he said. “We do have a solar plant here, but other than that we don’t offer a lot as far as producing electricity.”
At the same time, the Presidio Municipal Development District (PMDD), at the request of Gerfers, voted to fund a geothermal feasibility study, and the ball was rolling. A working group was formed to explore the potential, which included everything from additional electricity to powering refrigeration spaces at the Port of Entry to Mexico for increased trade. The group got even more momentum attending a world geothermal conference in Hawaii in October of 2024.
By December 2024, PMMD had formed a partnership with Exceed Geo Energy, Inc. out of Austin to pursue a plan for geothermal and by May 2025, signed a power purchase agreement with the company for 110-megawatts. “We’re creating the foundation for transformative economic growth: the kind of reliable, clean power that can support data centers, refrigerated logistics, expanded manufacturing, and value-added processing facilities that take advantage of our unique position in the North American trade corridor,” John T. Kennedy, PMDD executive director, said at the time.
By September of this year, PMMD had coordinated leases of land for Exceed Geo Energy with Presidio ISD and land at the city’s industrial park for geothermal power plants—positioning Presidio to have the first geothermal plants in Texas.
“We’re building a future that benefits our students, our residents, and our economy while contributing to Texas’s energy security,” Laura Portillo, PMDD board president, said at the time. “Let’s get this show on the road. We’ve done the planning, secured the partnerships, and now it’s time to deliver results.”
While the plants aren’t a certainty and a reality in construction, it’s clear that momentum is on Presidio’s side for a project that could be the small community on the world stage.
AEP battle leaves electricity needs in the background
When a January cold front arrived, it ended up straining American Electric Power’s (AEP) ability to meet electricity demand in Marfa, leaving County Judge Joe Portillo to call for Marfans to conserve electricity. He hoped that voluntary cutbacks by individual homes and businesses could help the city avoid a dangerous blackout as overnight temperatures slumped into the teens and single digits.
Portillo said AEP representatives told him that its Oak Street substation was operating about 40% outside of its “safe zone.” Continuing to tax the grid could result in an outage. “It’s possible that [the grid] would be down for 48 hours during the two coldest days of the year,” he said.
It’s uncertain who would have recognized it at the time, but this would be the first indicator that a year-long battle would result in AEP’s attempt to build a new electricity substation. By April, the details—and the justification for a new substation would emerge. AEP told city officials the existing substation’s capacity is 5 MVA (megavolt-amperes,) but it is routinely over capacity operating at 7 MVA during the peak of summer and winter, a 40% overload, according to Guerrero. A new substation would cost $7 million to $10 million, but it could accommodate growth in the area. A new substation would be designed for 15 MVA capacity, AEP said.
But it wasn’t the cost that spurred an uproar; rather, it was the proposed location: A four-acre residential lot on the east side of town, at the corner of Oak and Aparejo streets, just before the bridge over Alamito Creek, with a much larger footprint than the existing substation down the street. Residents near the proposed site, as well as others in Marfa, objected to the idea of rezoning the site from residential to industrial to accommodate the plan.
Sara Melancon Bingham, who owns a house across the street from the proposed substation location, told officials: “Rezoning that land from residential to industrial is not only going to be a huge bummer for me and all of my neighbors, it’s going to fundamentally change the character of that neighborhood, not just for a year or two, but permanently. It sends a message that our quiet residential spaces can be reshaped for corporate convenience.”
A popular refrain of resistance to the plan over the following months emerged at meetings of the Planning and Zoning Commission charged with studying the rezoning request—AEP had not adequately looked at alternative sites. AEP countered that it had, but none met the criteria it had for building an affordable substation, although it released no details on the alternatives examined. Meanwhile, the plan still had supporters. The site’s owner, Jessi Silva, told the City Council that AEP is the only party that has ever shown interest in buying her land, which is vacant of buildings except for a small adobe home. She criticized opponents of the rezoning by saying they didn’t have any interest in the area and “only want to fight AEP.”
By June, the Planning and Zoning Commission was ready to release a report and recommendation to the City Council—which has the ultimate power of approval on rezoning—and it recommended denying the zoning request in its 78-page report. The City Council scheduled hearings on its deliberations for the rezoning. Although it looked as if the council would finally vote on the matter in the following months, a cancelled meeting and another delay put what may have been a final vote at an October 23 council meeting. The council ended up tabling the item and instead unanimously called for AEP to file a new application for rezoning with a “special use permit,” which would require much more detail and the ability for officials to impose “conditions” for approving a rezoning. AEP indicated that it would do the new application.
The AI data center: How serious is it?
With AI data centers under construction in Abilene, near El Paso, and those already operating in several locations across Texas, the idea that a center would come to Marfa wasn’t so far-fetched—even if it seemed like a water-hogging facility might not be a good fit for the high desert with limited water supplies.
In April, Big Bend Sentinel learned that county and city officials had been meeting with a company called Open Origin, which showcased a proposal to build an AI data center east of Marfa. The potential location for the large-scale operation is 80,000 acres southeast of Marfa on land containing the historic MacGuire and Antelope Springs ranches, currently owned by Texas Mountain Cattle Company, Brad Kelley’s LLC. No land sale has been finalized.
Open Origin is one of many companies responding to a Request for Proposals (RFP) put out by The Stargate Project, a private joint venture led by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle that plans to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years. The ambitious initiative to build 20 new data centers in the U.S. was announced by President Trump on his second day in office.
The widespread use of AI is increasing the nation’s electrical appetite — an AI internet search requires 10 times the amount of energy used in a traditional internet search — with some companies like Open Origin turning to renewable energy as a solution.
Open Origin told officials it intends to produce all of the power needed to run the AI data center on site with renewable energy, as opposed to using the existing power grid. Acres upon acres of solar panels, cleaned by robots, would be installed. A county official who met with Open Origin said they intend to pump 800 acre feet of groundwater annually for their operation, which equates to about 714,000 gallons of water a day. By comparison, the City of Marfa pumps 550 acre feet a year, and Village Farms tomato growers — the largest operating permit holder in Presidio County — pumps 400 acre feet a year.
While the water needed was shocking to many readers, other AI data centers are looking at “closed systems” that recycle water, although they are still demanding high water use to fill the systems and periodically refill them.
Officials were continuing to discuss the proposal with Open Origin as late as October. Commissioner David Beebe and Deirdre Hisler—involved in those discussions have consistently said they were aware of the need to restrict excessive water use through permitting with the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District, while also being open to the boom in economic development and tax base a center could bring. Open Origin has told officials that construction could create thousands of temporary jobs with thousands more permanent placements that could lead to something akin to a mini city east of Marfa.