Overview
Amazon's First Off-Grid Campus Sits in the Permian Basin
Pacifico Energy, a California developer, assembled the GW Ranch site and won its state air permits in January 2026. Amazon confirmed in August 2026 that it had bought the site and signed to buy the power generated there; it is Amazon's first private behind-the-meter (BTM) campus. The site lies about 30 miles from the Chevron and Microsoft campus in the same county.
Amazon Data Services filed state registrations in August 2026 for three data center buildings of about 189,000 sq ft each, at about $300M apiece, designed by Gensler. Amazon has not disclosed the campus IT load or total cost; Pacifico put the project near $12B in February 2026. See AWS's Texas compute.
| Owner and operator | Amazon Web Services (Amazon Data Services) |
|---|---|
| Power developer | Pacifico Energy |
| Location | Pecos County, Permian Basin |
| Land | About 8,000 acres |
| Generation | Up to 7.65 GW gas (35 turbines), 750 MW solar, 1.8 GW battery |
| IT capacity | Not disclosed |
| Buildings | Three registered, about 189,000 sq ft and $300M each |
| Water | None for initial generation cooling; brackish groundwater later |
| Status | Under construction |
Energy model
A Gas Plant Built Ahead of the Grid
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) permits up to 35 natural gas turbines with combined capacity of 7.65 GW, and the plan adds up to 750 MW of solar and 1.8 GW of battery storage. The plant runs separately from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid at first; Amazon says it will move to grid-connected service as interconnection timelines allow, which puts any later connection under the SB 6 (2025) large-load rules. Global Energy Monitor ranks it first among Texas gas projects built for data centers.
Quoting 7.65 GW as the data center's capacity overstates it: the number is the plant nameplate, and the three registered buildings are the only disclosed load. See Behind-the-Meter Power and Permian Basin Energy.
Deal structure
Amazon Owns the Land and Buys the Power
Amazon bought the land from Pacifico and holds the buildings through Amazon Data Services. Pacifico develops the generation and plans to run its own engineering, procurement and construction; Amazon buys the output under a power purchase arrangement whose term, price and volume are not public. The campus serves AWS and its cloud customers. No external AI lab has been tied to this site; Amazon's large Anthropic capacity runs through Project Rainier in Indiana.
Constraints
The Largest Greenhouse Gas Permit in the Country
The air permits allow up to 33 million tons of greenhouse gases a year and more than 12,000 tons of regulated pollutants. TCEQ has said the facility could emit more greenhouse gases than any other single US source; actual output depends on how often the turbines run. Amazon says its 2040 net-zero pledge stands.
The air permit was issued before Governor Abbott's September 21, 2026 pause on data center permits, so the plant's air side is settled. Later phases plan to draw brackish groundwater or oil-field produced water; if that source needs a TCEQ authorization, it falls under the pause until ERCOT's review finishes in mid-December. See Water and Cooling.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- Amazon, Pacifico Energy, Engineering News-Record, Baxtel, Cleanview, Texas Observer, Texas Tribune, TDLR registrations, Global Energy Monitor, Noetic, Office of the Governor of Texas
- Last verified
- October 2026