Fossil Fuels & Generation
Molly Glick
Molly Glick
Energy Central Team
·Posted in Fossil Fuels & Generation
Mon, Jun 22

NEWS: A 3-GW Microsoft data center will (mostly) run on behind-the-meter gas.

  • The deal: The tech titan has inked a 20-year PPA with Chevron to fuel a planned data center in West Texas, which is set to receive its first power in 2028. This could become one of the country’s biggest projects of its kind.

  • The demand: The data center would gobble up enough electricity to power two million homes. But Chevron is optimistic it’ll have extra power to send to the grid, CNBC reported. 

  • Meanwhile in Virginia, state Democrats have agreed to put a temporary two-year tax on data centers, which would cost the industry roughly $600M annually. (But data centers pull in $2B from sales tax exemptions each year.) The potential tax is part of a budget agreement that still needs approval from other state officials and Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

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