LIBERTY, Texas — Data centers are facing some obstacles amid environmental pushback from dozens of Texas communities. To counter this, some companies have made sustainability a priority.
Construction is well underway for BaRupOn’s Liberty America Multi-Sourced Power and Innovation Hub (LAMP) in Liberty, about an hour east of Houston. The 700-acre self-sustaining energy campus will be constructed in four to six phases, requiring three gigawatts of power.
Unlike the hundreds of data centers that have either been proposed or are already under construction in Texas, this campus will not rely on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s energy grid. It will produce its own energy through natural gas to power manufacturing and support data centers.
“Whatever we’re doing here is not going to impact the community on their power,” said Balaji Tammabattula, BaRupOn’s founder and chief operating officer. “It’s not going to change their power bills.”
Amid Texas’ data center boom, dozens of communities are pushing back because of water concerns. Tammabattula explained how his project will not rely solely on Liberty County’s aquifers.
“For every 50 acres, we want to have around five acres of deep deduction ponds,” Tammabattula said. “So, for every 50 acres, we can store about 50 million gallons of water, so then we can actually repurpose, reuse this water, which is actual rainwater.”
He said the first phase will be up and running in three months and about 300 people are expected to be employed.