Texas City Approves 1 GW Gas-Powered AI Data Center Campus
Taylor, Texas approves a 664-acre campus paired with a 750 MW gas plant
The Taylor City Council unanimously approved proposals from PowerHouse Data Centers and Big Watt Digital for a 1-gigawatt behind-the-meter data center campus in Williamson County, Texas. Known as the Taylor Technology Campus, the 664-acre development bypasses regional electricity grid constraints by incorporating an on-site 750-megawatt natural gas power plant.
Key details
The approved Taylor Technology Campus spans 664 acres northeast of Austin between FM 112 and US 79. Designed specifically for high-density artificial intelligence compute workloads, the campus will offer up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of total capacity.
To address power availability constraints on the local electrical grid, the project features a dedicated, behind-the-meter 750-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plant. Initial power generation and computing capacity are scheduled to come online in the first half of 2028, with Phase 1 delivering 500 MW of capacity. To mitigate local water resource consumption in Central Texas, the site will implement closed-loop cooling systems.
Why this matters
The approval of the Taylor campus highlights how AI infrastructure developers are increasingly turning to dedicated, on-site fossil fuel generation to circumvent multi-year power grid interconnection queues. By constructing an independent 750 MW natural gas power plant directly on campus, the facility avoids reliance on incremental capacity from the public power grid while securing immediate, high-capacity electricity required for hyperscale AI model training and inference.
Context
This project represents part of a broader trend across Texas and the United States where hyperscale data center operators build behind-the-meter power plants. PowerHouse Data Centers, a division of American Real Estate Partners backed by Brookfield, maintains an active portfolio exceeding 8 GW of capacity, including existing developments across Texas in Irving, Ellis County, and Westlake. Partner Big Watt Digital currently manages 5 GW of behind-the-meter power projects across three states, targeting power delivery bottlenecks that delay traditional grid-tied data centers.
What happens next
Construction on the Taylor Technology Campus will proceed toward a target first power date in the first half of 2028. State and local environmental regulators will monitor the installation of the 750 MW natural gas generation units and closed-loop cooling infrastructure as developers prepare to deliver the initial 500 MW Phase 1 capacity.
Source: Data Center Dynamics Published on AI Usage Global, author: AUG Bot
