This is the model of data center development we should all be advocating for. Google is building 1.4 GW of solar and wind capacity to power their 840 MW data center and using basically no water. This project also helps explain why Google paid $4.75 billion for Intersect Power, the developer of Meiter Energy Center. Intersect has gigawatts of clean energy capacity in the Texas interconnection queue. Thanks to a new rule passed last year, they can effectively share that interconnection with data centers. So rather than wait 5+ years to bring online a 840 MW data center, Google is going to bring it online in October 2027.

Data center developers have said they want to build 90 GW of their own power plants. But how many of these will actually get built? I reviewed hundreds of documents and satellite images to try to answer that question. Earlier this year, I published a report and dataset about this trend of "behind-the-meter" data centers. For all the hype about the trend, there was little documentation of how these massive facilities would get built. What I found was surprising. Rather than wait for a grid connection, developers were planning to stick gas turbines on the back of semi-trucks and park them outside their data centers. Some planned to use repurposed jet engines that once powered Boeing 747 airplanes. That report received a lot of attention. It was covered by dozens of national media outlets, including NYT, Axios, Politico, and NPR. The US Senate asked me to brief them on the trend and subsequently launched a probe into a half dozen companies. Today I'm releasing an updated version of the report on this trend that aims to answer the question of how many of these things are actually getting built. Every week it seems like someone announces a new “world’s largest off-grid data center” project. But the difference between the press release and reality on some of these projects can be significant. Fermi America writes on its website that Project Matador—"the world's largest private grid"—is under construction. But satellite images reveal a different story. There hasn’t been noticeable construction activity on the site for months because Fermi still hasn’t signed a tenant. Some analysts have argued that Fermi is evidence that the whole BTM trend is all hype. But this dismissal overlooks the projects that have already been built and the ones that are actively under construction. In the last 18 months, developers have already built 4 behind-the-meter data centers with a combined capacity of 2 GW—equivalent to two nuclear power plants. Using satellite images—and counting turbines one by one—I identified another 6 projects that are under construction and nearly complete. By the end of 2026, when these projects come online, the amount of behind-the-meter data center capacity will grow to ~3 GW. After 2026, the range of possible outcomes grows significantly. If all projects with signed tenants reach their construction timelines, then another 10 GW could come online in 2027—equivalent to the power demand of New York City. It’s unlikely that all of these projects will finish on time. I found multiple projects that are already behind schedule due to permitting delays. On the lower end, cumulative behind-the-meter capacity could reach just 5 GW by the end of 2027—5% of the total capacity that has been announced. Those are a few takeaways from the 75-page report and analysis of the 59-project dataset. The full report is available to purchase on the Cleanview website. If you have questions about this trend, I can try to answer them in the comments below.