Texas Stacks 40 GW of Gas-to-AI Power as Water Fights Sharpen

Texas didn't just dominate the datacenter power conversation this week. It consumed it. Nearly 58 GW of gas projects entered development in 2025, with 40 GW purpose-built for AI compute. The TCEQ issued the country's largest air pollution permit to Pacifico Energy's 7.65 GW GW Ranch complex in Pecos County, authorizing up to 33 million tons per year of greenhouse gases. That single project joins a growing roster of behind-the-meter megaprojects that now defines Texas as the world's gas-to-AI factory floor.

Gigawatts Behind the Fence, Regulators Racing to Catch Up

The week's signature deal: Constellation Energy and CyrusOne struck a 380 MW power agreement at the Freestone Energy Center, a 1,045 MW gas plant, with campus capacity potentially reaching 760 MW. It's the clearest case yet of dispatchable generation disappearing behind the fence, and it landed alongside 1 GW of Google solar PPAs from TotalEnergies and Soluna's 83 MW wind-powered facility in a single day. The scale is staggering:

• •Fermi America took delivery of its first Siemens Energy turbines for an 11 GW campus in Amarillo
• •Crusoe Energy's 1.2 GW Stargate Phase 1 is already online in Abilene
• •Applied Digital energized 200 MW in Garden City, deep in the water-scarce Permian Basin
• •Anthropic closed a $30 billion Series G with confirmed Texas buildout plans through Fluidstack

ERCOT is now sprinting to finalize its batch interconnection study framework by June 1, with the PUCT scrapping the original two-phase approach and compressing the entire process into 14 weeks. Three working group meetings are scheduled before month's end alone. The design questions are far from settled, and the August 1 effective date leaves zero room for procedural slips.

Water Becomes a Permitting Variable

The week's most consequential regulatory signal wasn't about power. The PUC agreed on February 6 to distribute Texas's first water-use survey for datacenters and crypto facilities this spring, while HARC published estimates pegging 2025 datacenter water consumption at roughly 25 billion gallons, potentially reaching 161 billion by 2030. State Rep. Armando Walle called the survey a "softer approach" than legislation, but once consumption data goes public, expect it to become ammunition in local permitting fights. Community opposition is already sharp: Brenham rejected a tax abatement for Viridien's 45 MW facility, Fort Worth tabled Black Mountain's $10 billion campus rezoning until March 10, and Hood County narrowly defeated a moratorium only after a state senator intervened. Nationally, Food & Water Watch is coordinating 230+ groups calling for a federal moratorium, and states from Oklahoma to Oregon are advancing datacenter rate legislation. Every jurisdiction that closes its gates pushes more load toward Texas.

What to Watch

• •ERCOT Batch Study Workshop #3 on February 26: the first session where draft NPRR language gets workshopped; stakeholder fault lines on screening and eligibility will crystallize
• •Fort Worth City Council returns March 10 on Black Mountain's rezoning; the outcome will signal how Texas's largest cities handle gigawatt-scale campus proposals
• •PUC water survey distribution timeline and participation rates; voluntary compliance with no enforcement mechanism is the critical vulnerability
• •Anthropic's Texas site selection specifics: MW targets, location, and whether the ratepayer-protection pledge becomes an industry template or a one-off