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Amazon Confirms GW Ranch: 7.65 GW Off-Grid Gas Plant in Texas, Permitted for 33M Tonnes CO2/Year

Amazon has confirmed it acquired GW Ranch in Pecos County, Texas, and plans to buy power from a 7.65 GW natural gas plant being developed there by Pacifico Energy. The plant would be the largest gas facility in the United States, entirely disconnected from the Texas grid. Its air permit allows emissions up to 33 million tonnes of CO2 per year — more than any single pollution source in the country.

The news was first reported by Cleanview, which linked three data center construction permits Amazon filed with the state of Texas this week to the GW Ranch site. Satellite imagery confirmed land clearing was already underway.

The Numbers

  • 7.65 GW capacity, 35 turbines
  • 33 million tonnes CO2/year permitted ceiling — twice the James H. Miller Jr. coal plant in Alabama, the current US record holder at roughly 16 million tonnes in 2023
  • Entirely off-grid, at least at launch
  • Amazon’s first off-grid data center investment

For comparison, the SoftBank-backed Ohio project targeting 9.2 GW is planned to connect to the grid. GW Ranch would not.

Amazon said it remains committed to its net-zero 2040 pledge under The Climate Pledge, and noted it has enabled 10 GW of carbon-free energy across roughly 40 projects to power existing Texas data center operations. The GW Ranch plant would use brackish groundwater rather than potable water supplies.

The Pattern

Amazon joins Microsoft, Google, and Meta in investing in off-grid natural gas generation for AI data centers. But GW Ranch would be the largest single such project by capacity announced to date.

If other planned off-grid gas projects in the AI infrastructure pipeline reach their permitted emissions ceilings, the aggregate could exceed 200 million tonnes of CO2 per year — roughly the annual carbon output of Pakistan, or the emissions of 45 million cars.

Permitted ceilings are not operational guarantees. Facilities routinely operate below their air permit limits. But permits define the worst-case scenario regulators have approved, and GW Ranch’s ceiling is by a wide margin the largest ever issued to a single private industrial site in the United States.

The construction permits filed this week cover three data center buildings, with work beginning immediately upon approval. No anchor tenant has been publicly named beyond Amazon’s confirmation of acquisition.