Pacifico Energy, the company developing a massive natural gas power plant and AI data center for retail giant Amazon in Pecos County, met with officials in neighboring Brewster County on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a similar project on a ranch northwest of Alpine.
According to the company, the 7.65 gigawatt "GW Ranch" in nearby Pecos County is the largest natural gas plant planned in the U.S. The facility made headlines earlier this year when it was issued the largest air pollution permit in the country from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Pacifico Energy is now considering building a data center and power plant on a roughly 8,400 acre ranch in the Glass Mountains of Brewster County. The ranch is owned by James Ahern, who identified himself at Tuesday's meeting as a real estate broker who has seen the tax benefit of developing natural gas power plants.
"I have a big piece of property and they have said they are willing to entertain the idea," Ahren said.
A recent investigation by The Texas Tribune found that there are a total of 335 existing data centers throughout Texas with another 248 in development. Nearly half of the planned data centers will be in unincorporated areas outside of cities. Gov. Greg Abbott has toutedthe state as the "epicenter of AI development," but in August ordered a pause on new large-scale data centers connecting to the state's electric grid, pending a review by state regulators. The directive doesn't stop companies from developing facilities in the meantime.
"Hyperscale" AI data centers, like the one being developed by Pacfico in Pecos County, require large amounts of space to house servers and more advanced technology than traditional data centers.
While local officials in both Presidio County and the City of Presidio have been approached by companies seeking to build AI data centers in the past, those officials told Marfa Public Radio this week that communication had long lapsed with the companies and the projects didn't seem to be moving forward.
At the Brewster County meeting this week, Ahern was joined by Pacifico representatives including senior director of development Matthew Gomes, director of land services Lance Addison and Shawn Gaston who was introduced as an "expert in water," and is an independent energy investor, according to his LinkedIn page.
There was no formal presentation due to it being "very early," on in the process, Gomes said. Still, company representatives assured the county judge that the facility will be a multi-billion dollar investment, ranging anywhere from $5 billion to $60 billion.
"Even $1 [billion] is more than all the tax revenue Brewster County collects in a year anyway," Ahern said, referring to the fact that the county would benefit financially from more property on the tax rolls.
Gomes explained that the project is in the "feasibility" phase, with Pacifico Energy assessing the best place to build on Ahern's land and conducting wetland, geophysical and topographic surveys.
The data center would be off-grid and rely on power supplied by its own natural gas turbines. A pipeline would need to be built to supply the facility with natural gas, Gomes said. The facility may also utilize solar and batteries, he said.
Data centers generate a lot of heat and require water for cooling systems. Gomes said the facility would utilize a closed-loop water system, which initially draws a large amount of water that is then reused over a period of years. He said Pacifico will look into the possibility of using produced water — an oil and gas byproduct, which the TCEQ is still figuring out how to regulate — and is assessing area aquifers for groundwater withdrawal.
The specific area the company is looking to build on is already being targeted by an outside water district looking to export groundwater from the La Escalera Ranch.
"We would be very sensitive, extremely sensitive to water usage," Brewster County Judge Greg Henington said at Tuesday's meeting.
Around-the-clock noise from the facility was also a concern voiced by Henington and several locals that spoke during the public comment period.
" On a cold, clear desert night the sound travels a long way," Henington said.
Gomes said Pacifico Energy would design the facility in such a way that noise is minimized.
" We'll do a sound study and see what happens to the noise when it leaves this site and how far [it goes]," he said. "We'll follow it up with pre and post-construction sound testing."
Pacifico representatives estimated that it would take one to two years of planning before construction could begin.
It is possible that a mancamp would also be built on Ahren's land to house construction workers, Gomes said. Kiewit — the parent company of Southwest Valley Constructors, which is building the portion of the border barrier in Brewster County — is building out one of Pacifico Energy's other projects, he said, and is among the firms that hires employees and manages construction for the company.
The facility could ultimately employ 100 to 200 people, according to Pacifico Energy representatives.
The concept of a "development agreement" with the county was brought up several times at this week's meeting but not discussed in detail. Henington said the development agreement Pecos County entered into stipulated that all employees of the facility had to live in the county. Brewster County Commissioner Sara Allen Colando asked if the company would seek tax incentives, to which representatives said they were open to whatever the county wanted to do.
" Community, schools, jobs, housing, noise, all of these things that I just mentioned that are concerns, these are the kind of things that we can address in a development agreement between us and the county," Gomes said.
When Henington sought public comments at the end of the meeting no one spoke in favor of the project. Locals voiced concerns about the long-term economic viability of the data center, the availability of hotel rooms for tourists with so many construction workers in town and the preservation of the region's dark skies.
People are feeling the pinch of development, they said, with impending border wall construction, and now this data center proposal.
" What is our identity as Brewster County? What would Manhattan be without Central Park? We are the respite for the State of Texas," resident Marci Roberts said. "We are where people go to get away from the lighting, from the noise, from corporations. We are their sacred ground."
Several spoke about harmful impacts to air quality. Three Democratic Senators raised similar concerns in a March letter to Pacifico Energy about the Pecos County power plant, stating that it will emit "12,000 tons per year of dangerous health-harming pollutants including soot, ammonia, carbon monoxide" and "33 million tons per year of climate-warming greenhouse gases."
" How many packs of cigarettes are you smoking every day living in this county now?" said Reagan Stone, a former Alpine City Council member. "I like to have a couple every week or two, but I don't want it to be from y'all's gas data plant."
Stone asked that public officials be forthcoming about the project moving forward considering the use of non-disclosure agreements in similar projects across the country. The county's agenda item was presented as a "presentation from Pacifico Energy" and did not include the words "data center" but around 10 people still showed up to oppose the project.
"I want it to be known that this room will get bigger and bigger," Stone said.
Henington said he wanted the public to know these discussions are occurring, even though there are no clear answers yet and it's early on in the process.
" I just want to let you know we're not taking this, like a lay down," Henington said. "At the same time, I think it would be not right of us as elected officials to not least listen to what these guys had to say. So, stay tuned."
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