Cleanview

Track data centers and power projects from the first permit to final completion

[Michael Thomas @curious_founder]

This week I found permits and satellite photos suggesting Amazon is backing what could be the largest gas power plant ever built in the US.

I just got off the phone with the company and confirmed they're behind it.

Amazon confirmed that it has acquired a site in Pecos County, Texas called GW Ranch, where it plans to build an AI data center campus powered by a 7.65 GW gas plant. It would initially be entirely disconnected from the Texas electric grid.

In January, GW Ranch received a permit from the state of Texas allowing the gas power plant to emit 33 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

If the project emitted that much CO2, it would be the largest single source of pollution in the United States—emitting more greenhouse gases than the country’s largest coal plant. It’s worth noting that companies rarely emit as much as their permits allow.

The paper trail linking Amazon to GW Ranch surfaced earlier this week when Amazon filed three construction permits with the state. The permits showed Amazon’s plans to build three data center buildings with construction beginning immediately.

Cleanview reviewed satellite imagery to look for the project and discovered that land clearing had begun at the site described in GW Ranch’s air permit records.

We reached out to Amazon and the company confirmed it had acquired the GW Ranch site and plans to buy power from the plant, which is being developed by Pacifico Energy.

Partnering with GW Ranch marks Amazon’s first major investment in an off-grid data center. In doing so, the company joins Microsoft, Google, and Meta who have all invested significantly in natural gas power this year.

Data center developers have announced nearly 60 behind-the-meter gas power projects since the beginning of 2025 with a combined capacity of 90 GW, according to Cleanview’s latest report.

Not all of these projects will be built, but in recent months a growing share of them have begun construction and signed key tenant deals.

Amazon’s project in West Texas is unlikely to be its last bet on large-scale natural gas power. Yesterday, the company confirmed that it is in talks with the developers of a 4.5 GW gas power plant in Homer City, Pennsylvania.

When the developers of the Homer City gas plant first announced their project, they said it would be the largest gas power plant in America.

Now it’s just one of many giga-scale power plants that have been proposed across the country.

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

There are currently 668 power projects under construction in the US with a combined capacity of 72,559 MW.

Solar leads construction pipeline with 39% of capacity, followed by wind (26%), batteries (23%) and natural gas (12%).

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

Over the last few months, we've been analyzing data on clean energy trends in America.

Today we published a report with ~50 trends that we found in our research.

One major takeaway: The U.S. added 47% more clean energy in 2024 than the year before.

https://t.co/ElrNAoO4VD

[Canary Media @CanaryMediaInc]

Clean energy projects in the U.S. have gone through a growth spurt in recent years.

New data from @CleanviewEnergy shows the 25 biggest clean energy projects that plugged into the grid last year.

Learn more from @Dan__McCarthy in the #ChartOfTheWeek: https://t.co/g31tJ3ack2

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

You can sign up below for our newsletter if you want to read the report when it's released later this month:

https://t.co/1jTIEdp1IV

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

New data from a report we're going to release soon:

The U.S. added a record amount of solar capacity in 2024.

The country added 34 GW of utility-scale solar, which is 74% more than last year's record year.

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

We just released data on how much clean energy each state built in August.

Texas continues to build more solar than any other state.

[ACORE @ACORE]

Texas plans to install 21.37 GW of #solar, 11.31 GW of #storage, & 2.89 GW of #wind in the next 18 months, per @CleanviewEnergy's analysis of @EIAgov data. 📈

There's more to do to achieve a clean grid in TX, but 35 GW of #CleanEnergy is major progress!
https://t.co/iZsc6COMCp

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

@Bitgreen_ Thank you!

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

The U.S. is on track to add 38 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity this year, nearly twice as much as last year.

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

cc @scienceisstrat1

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

Solar and batteries are expected to make up 80% of new power capacity this year in the U.S.

Both technologies are going to shatter the records they each set in 2023.

🧵

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

@TrudgeDMC Thanks for sharing!

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

You can explore all the data from this thread in Cleanview: https://t.co/qKmRU7WwCk

[Cleanview @CleanviewEnergy]

But even this figure overstates the amount of gas power that is coming online in 2024.

More than 80% of this new gas capacity will be in the form of single-combustion turbines that are designed to run only a fraction of the year.