Energy company, Tenaska, is reported to be buying thousands of acres of land in southeast Nebraska where it intends to build one of the largest data centers in the country.
Tenaska is the same firm that operates the Kiamichi Generating Station in Southeast Oklahoma where power is sold to both the Southwest Power Pool and the electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Now, the giant company has been creating agreements with landowners for more than 2,600 acres east of Lincoln. Reports indicated the firm used two different LLC names to reach the agreements. County deed records show the agreements give Tenaska the exclusive option to buy the land.
The Flatwater Free Press and Grist both reported the company appears poised to build a utility-scale natural gas plant to power the data center. The same documents show that “Google would operate the data center and that the project may also be one of the largest test cases for carbon capture and storage, a controversial way to deal with runaway emissions that has not yet proven effective as a solution for climate change.”
Grist reported the documents were shared at a private meeting of a Nebraska public power district in January and revealed the proposed data center would use between 1,000 and 3,000 megawatts of power from a combined-cycle natural gas plant.
“If the facility were to operate at the higher end of that range, it would generate more power than the largest power plant in the state,” reported the news site.
The project also named three companies involved and they include Google, Tenaska and natural gas and carbon dioxide pipeline company Tallgrass Energy. Based in Omaha, Tenaska would power the new data center while Tallgrass, headquartered in Kansas City, would supply natural gas and transport captured carbon.