As Google marches forward with plans for more data centers in Oklahoma, the company is also expanding data center efforts nationwide and intends to rely on natural gas to power them. In a big way.
For example, a report this week by Cleanview, a market intelligence platform, revealed how Google plans partnering to construct a large data center campus near Amarillo to be called “Goodnight.” It plans to power the campus largely by a massive on-site natural gas plant as well as from a wind farm.
Cleanview used permits, satellite images and other documents to verify its report.
The “Goodnight” campus will be near the small town of Claude, Texas located east of Amarillo and close to the “leaning tower of Texas” along Interstate 40.
The tower is actually a leaning old water tower. The campus is also part of Google’s $40 billion investment in new data center campuses in Armstrong County and Haskell County where the high-tech development company is partnering with Crusoe Energy.
As Cleanview reported, Crusoe filed a permit in January to build a 933 MW natural gas plant onsite at the Goodnight campus. Crusoe’s gas plant would power two buildings on the campus and would not be connected to the power grid, which is the Southwest Power Pool, the same grid in charge of Oklahoma’s electricity supply. The two buildings are currently under construction.
Cleanview reported that Google confirmed the partnership with Crusoe. The agreement is similar to other natural gas power efforts by Google including one we recently cited in Nebraska where the company has proposed a nearly 3,000 MW gas plant to power what might be the largest data center in the nation.
As the above map indicates, Google’s data center projects involve Oklahoma. It already has a data center in Pryor but is expanding the project. It also is moving ahead with a new data center in Stillwater and other locations.
So far, there have been no publicly confirmed efforts by Google to build its own natural gas power projects for the new data centers. And just as in Texas where consumers raised concerns about the demand for electrical power and the impact on ratepayers, similar concerns and worries have been expressed by Oklahoma consumers.
Similar concerns have also been suggested in regulatory filings by Oklahoma Gas and Electric and Public Service Company of Oklahoma. Both are in the process of attempting to win support from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in their power expansion efforts.
Even as PSO went before regulators last year to win approval of its $730 million purchase of the Green Country Power plant, leaders expressed worry about the power demand they anticipate from the growth of data centers in the state.
Such power demands have not escaped leaders at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission who issued a report last summer stating, “Oklahoma is experiencing rising electricity demand from large-scale data centers and AI infrastructure. These loads, typically exceeding 100 MW per site, are unique in their scale, consistency, and demand for high reliability.”
The report pointed to the state’s year-old “behind-the-meter” law which eliminates the requirement at the Southwest Power Pool.
“However, Oklahoma’s statute does not require the large load to supply its own power,” continued the report, which pointed out, “A barrier to this self-supply option is that the data center is not in the power production business.”