Fort Stockton
Pacifico Energy is moving forward with its GW Ranch, a massive AI data center on Highway 18 north of Fort Stockton.
According to a company news release, “GW Ranch has received its Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) air permit for 7.65 GW of gas-fired power generation, the largest permit granted in the United States of America. Securing the TCEQ air permit authorizes construction and operation under state and federal air-quality requirements.”
“We’re really excited to reach this precedent-setting milestone at GW Ranch,” said Nate Franklin, CEO of Pacifico Energy Group, in the release. “As electricity prices rise nationwide and large data center loads place growing pressure on regional grids, Pacifico’s development philosophy is intentionally designed to protect ratepayers. Utilizing a private-grid that combines natural gas turbines, solar, and battery storage, GW Ranch enables rapid AI and digital infrastructure growth without impacting the electricity grid or increasing energy costs for Texans.”
Data centers are groupings of huge supercomputers intended to handle the bandwidth and demands of artificial intelligence. A data center proposal has surfaced for ranch land southeast of Marfa, but the project has not moved forward past initial discussions with local officials.
Data centers often use immense amounts of water to cool the facilities and enormous amounts of power—although power is often generated by solar panel fields or natural gas facilities.
The Midland Reporter-Telegram also reported that the company is striving for sustainability. “We know in Texas, and especially in West Texas, water is worth fighting for,” said Constantyn Gieskes, vice president of project development at Pacifico Energy. “We’ve designed this project with that in mind. The power generation system is self-sufficient and will produce water that can be used by the data center.”
Gieskes told the newspaper that data centers are moving toward closed-loop systems so that, once the centers are built and supplied with water, they won’t need as much water to operate. However, closed-systems still require a large amount of water on initial fill and with periodic refills.
“We wanted a place where natural gas was abundant, but we also wanted a large site to build,” Gieskes told the Telegram. “We needed to find thousands of acres in one spot and relatively unscathed from previous development.” Pecos County officials have been great to work with and welcoming, he added.