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Tuesday, 25 August 2026

52 briefs so farlast update 18:52 UTC

Key points

  • US Treasury Warns of Secondary Sanctions Over Iranian Oil Purchases.
  • Global Energy Monitor: Texas's 12 Largest Planned Gas Plants All Serve Data Centers.
  • Woodside Drops Clean Energy Plans After Fuel Crisis Windfall, RenewEconomy Reports.
  • Denmark's Export Fund Lends EUR 100 Million for Ukraine Wind Farm.
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AI & Energy

ERCOT Delays First Data Center Connection Batch to Mid-December for Governor's Audit

The first group of large data centers queued for connection to the Texas grid will not advance until mid-December, ERCOT officials said, according to Inside Climate News.

The holdup covers Batch Zero, a set of 300 projects that ERCOT staff must vet. Inside Climate News reported that 90 percent of those projects are data centers.

Batch Zero was set up to refine how ERCOT studies the 1,800 projects waiting for grid connection, according to the same report.

Chad Seely, ERCOT's senior vice president for regulatory policy, said the grid operator is now running the audit and verification earlier in the study process at the request of the governor. Seely made the remarks at a PUC meeting, per Inside Climate News.

Water use data on the sector remains thin. A PUC water survey released in April has drawn responses from only 28 companies, Inside Climate News reported.

Public sentiment in the state runs against local siting. A June poll from the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Politics Project found 56 percent of respondents opposed building data centers in their communities, with 42 percent strongly opposed.

Source: insideclimatenews.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

AI & Energy

Global Energy Monitor: Texas's 12 Largest Planned Gas Plants All Serve Data Centers

Every one of the 12 largest gas power projects planned in Texas is intended to run data centers, according to data released by Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit that maps and tracks energy infrastructure.

Planned gas generation in the state grew 50% over the last six months, more than any country besides the United States, the Global Energy Monitor report said.

The latest release of the group's Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker counts 81.7 GW of operating gas power generation in Texas, 99.4 GW in development, and a further 22.4 GW recently announced.

The single largest permitting event of the year involves GW Ranch Energy Center near Fort Stockton, which received the largest US air pollution permit this year and expects to emit 33 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, per Inside Climate News. Amazon acquired the project.

A second project of comparable scale is Fermi America's Project Matador in the Texas Panhandle, backed by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The plan calls for 90 combined-cycle gas turbines and 24 million tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions.

The buildout runs against the position taken by the state's current governor. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in August a pause on data center proposals. "They must not take power from the Texas power grid," Abbott said on ABC News.

Source: insideclimatenews.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

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