{"id":146611,"date":"2026-02-01T16:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/146611\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:52:12","slug":"texas-approves-largest-permitted-data-center-campus-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/146611\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas approves \u2018largest permitted data center campus\u2019 in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">West Texas will soon be home to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacificoenergy.com\/gw-ranch\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pacificoenergy.com\/gw-ranch\">GW Ranch<\/a>, an enormous planned complex of gas power plants and data centers near the oil fields of the Permian basin. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to the project\u2019s developers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacificoenergy.com\/post\/pacifico-energy-secures-7-65-gw-power-generation-permit-for-gw-ranch-project\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pacificoenergy.com\/post\/pacifico-energy-secures-7-65-gw-power-generation-permit-for-gw-ranch-project\">Pacifico Energy<\/a>, it is the largest permitted data center campus in the United States. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Pacifico Energy got the go-ahead this month from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This more than 8-thousand-acre campus will be located in Pecos County, about 17 miles north of Fort Stockton. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The commission approved its air permit of up to 7.65 GW of gas-fired power generation, using a mix of small and large-scale gas turbines. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As electricity prices rise nationwide and large data center loads place growing pressure on regional grids, the energy company says its development philosophy is intentionally designed to protect ratepayers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Its private grid uses natural gas turbines, solar, and battery storage, enabling rapid AI and digital infrastructure growth without impacting the electricity grid or increasing energy costs for Texans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cReceiving TCEQ approval for the largest power project in the United States is a defining milestone for GW Ranch, and clears a critical path for delivering power at a scale the market urgently needs,\u201d said Constantyn Gieskes, Vice President of Project Development at Pacifico Energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The company expects its GW Ranch will provide customers with power in the first half of 2027, with a guaranteed pathway to scale to over 5 GW.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Pacifico Energy says it expects this project to create thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of permanent high-paying jobs, and substantial tax revenues. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Pacifico is calling the GW Ranch the \u2018next wave of a-I innovation.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; West Texas will soon be home to the GW Ranch, an enormous planned complex&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4267,5421,59877,59879,6085,29088,27,29,28,375],"class_list":{"0":"post-146611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-data-center","10":"tag-gw-ranch","11":"tag-pacifico-energy","12":"tag-permian-basin","13":"tag-power-plant","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-headlines","16":"tag-texas-news","17":"tag-west-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}