Project Jupiter permit applications forecast massive carbon fuel use

LAS CRUCES — The natural gas-fueled power facility envisioned for Project Jupiter, the massive data center under construction in Santa Teresa, is far larger than had previously been disclosed — both in how much power it will generate and how much pollution it will emit over Doña Ana County.

Recently released air quality permits for the project unveiled plans to produce upward of 2.8 gigawatts of electricity via fossil fuels, with carbon emissions lapping those of New Mexico’s two largest cities.

When Doña Ana County commissioners approved $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds to finance the project in September, developers indicated the microgrid would produce 700 to 900 megawatts of power in its first phase, ranging up to one gigawatt, equivalent to 1,000 megawatts.

Last month, Acoma LLC, an Austin-based company affiliated with developer BorderPlex Digital Assets, filed two air quality permit applications pertaining to planned microgrid facilities at the complex where four data centers supporting computing capacity for OpenAI are planned.

“As best I can tell, each of the data centers requires about 700 megawatts of capacity, and what they’ve essentially done is ask for a permit to build as much power as it would take to power all four of the data centers that are planned,” Stephen Fischmann, who served on New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission from 2019 to 2023, told the Journal. “Once they get the permit, I’m assuming they’ll build out enough to support the first data center, and then they’ll build more when and if the other data centers come online.”

Microgrids are autonomous power-generating facilities enabled under legislation passed by New Mexico lawmakers earlier this year.

In a series of town hall meetings this fall, developers disclosed that the data center would be powered with natural gas initially but promised a transition to renewable sources of energy, and would comply with New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act, which mandates zero emission power generation by 2045.

Developers have promised that its power generation would comply with the ETA but have not detailed when, how or even if the data centers — which require reliable energy supply 24 hours a day — could be powered solely on renewable energy.

The magnitude of the microgrid proposals, as reflected in Acoma’s applications, have critics wondering whether the facility could effectively eradicate reductions New Mexico has achieved during the 21st century in greenhouse gas emissions and shroud the border county in ground-level ozone, or smog.

“If this power plant moves forward, it would essentially wipe out 20 years of progress in reducing emissions in New Mexico,” environmental attorney David Baake wrote the Journal in an email. “We reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 13.5 million metric tons between 2005 and 2024. This power plant would emit 12.7 million metric tons, essentially putting us back at square one in the fight against climate change. Governor (Michelle) Lujan Grisham has been a strong climate advocate, so it would be incredibly disheartening if her administration allowed this power plant to proceed.”

For comparison, the entire city of Las Cruces reported greenhouse gas emissions of less than 1 million metric tons in 2018, and New Mexico’s largest city, Albuquerque, emitted 5.8 million metric tons of carbon gasses in 2017.

Additionally, the combined projected emissions of sulfur dioxide are 54.85 tons per year, but divided between the applications at 31.83 tons for the east microgrid and 27.02 tons for the west. Sulfur dioxide, a typical pollutant from power plants that burn fossil fuels, can affect respiratory health and the environment, combining with other compounds to produce particulate matter pollution, per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“No project comes without a footprint,” Matthew Gonzalez, executive director of the Consumer Energy Alliance, an advocacy organization with ties to fossil fuel energy, told the Journal. Project Jupiter nonetheless presents an exciting economic development opportunity for the county, he argued, while admitting that data center developers are still “figuring out” how to communicate with local communities about environmental costs as well as benefits from jobs and business development.

Acoma’s applications address two microgrids, labeled east and west, contemplating 41 simple-cycle gas turbines with projected annual nitrogen oxide emissions of 248.9 and 249.97 tons, respectively.

This places each of them just below the 250-ton threshold for being considered a “major stationary source” of regulated pollutants under the supervision of the New Mexico Environment Department. Together, they come close to a forecasted emission rate of 500 tons per year.

Colin Cox, a senior attorney of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, says dividing the proposed microgrid into two projects skirts NMED regulations and downplays Project Jupiter’s air pollution and contribution to climate change.

“I’ve seen this before: In Texas, this was a common practice,” Cox told the Journal. “They’re just trying to avoid regulation, or at least that’s the result of this. If they put all the pollution in one application, it would trigger all kinds of thresholds for additional review.”

However, correspondence from the NMED’s Air Quality Bureau, attached to the permit applications, indicated that the bureau considered the microgrids as separate entities and not “a single stationary source” because the proposed locations are on noncontiguous parcels, even though it acknowledges they would deliver power to the same campus.

BorderPlex Digital Assets, in a statement, said the microgrids would be more than a mile apart.

“BorderPlex, its customers, and its partners optimized the data center campus and associated microgrid capacity to support the development of large and functional AI clusters,” the developer said in a statement explaining that engineering design “requires the data center buildings to be very close together. Based on the configuration of the remaining available land, the power generation solutions were designed across two locations approximately 1.25 miles apart.

“BorderPlex has and will submit all permits based on the engineering-led design in accordance with all local, state, and federal guidelines and regulations,” the company said.

The Journal reached out to Acoma LLC and Trinity Consulting, which presented the application to the NMED. Neither responded.

A spokesperson for Doña Ana County did not answer a query as to whether the county, which holds title to the project’s property and equipment via the industrial revenue bonds, was aware of the microgrid air quality applications and their projected emissions.

Cox said he anticipated a challenge to the air quality permits. Meanwhile, two lawsuits seeking judicial review and possible voiding of the county ordinance providing financial assistance for Project Jupiter are pending in New Mexico’s 3rd Judicial District.