Meta’s under-construction data center in El Paso, Texas, is set to be powered behind-the-meter by a 366MW array of modular natural gas generators.

The 1GW project, which broke ground in October, would be powered by 813 modular generators, slated to come online by 2027. The units are expected to cost $473 million.

According to reports, Meta would cover all costs associated with the generation units in an initial five-year "bridge period," during which the data center would remain unconnected to the grid.

Despite this, the El Paso City Council has voted unanimously to intervene in the regulatory process, citing concerns that the plant could eventually be rolled into the general rate base.

The proposal has also led to opposition amongst environmental and community groups. For example, the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition, an El Paso economic and environmental justice group, has called on the city, county, and utilities to terminate their contracts with Meta.

“We were not told that El Paso Electric would be building a power plant powered by fossil fuels,” said Coalition organizer Verónica Carbajal. “To the contrary, we were told that Meta is going green and would rely on renewable energy. When we looked at the contracts ourselves, we realized that was an illusion.”

News that Meta was targeting a site in El Paso surfaced in late 2023, with the company operating behind the WurldWide LLC affiliate to acquire more than 1,000 acres of land in the northeast of the city.

Some $1.5 billion is set to be invested in the first phase of development. Previous reports suggest there could be up to five phases of development, each totaling around 800,000 sq ft (74,320 sqm).

The site has been designed to support “both the traditional servers of today and future generations of AI-enabled hardware,” and will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system that will use zero water for the “majority of the year.”

El Paso, located in the west of Texas and close to the borders of Mexico and New Mexico, is not traditionally a major data center hub. Dallas, Austin, and sometimes Houston, all to the east of El Paso, are more popular with data center developers in Texas. Phoenix in Arizona, to the west of El Paso, is also a large data center market.

The campus will be Meta’s third in Texas. The company has data center campuses in Fort Worth and Temple in the Lone Star State. It also operates sites nearby in neighboring Los Lunas, New Mexico, and Mesa, Arizona.