Amazon has confirmed its plans to build the largest power plant in US history in Pecos County, Texas, as part of a plan to supply its data centres with a reliable supply of energy.
The natural gas plant will be co-located with a large-scale data centre at a site called GW Ranch. It is expected to contain 35 turbines, capable of generating up to 7.65GW of electricity.
That capacity would make GW Ranch the US's largest power plant by some distance. The Grand Coulee Dam, located on the Columbia River in the state of Washington, is the current record holder. The hydroelectric power plant is capable of generating around 6.8GW, almost a full gigawatt less than Amazon's planned site.
To put that scale in context, Texas's own peak electricity demand record across its entire grid sits at under a fifth of the new capacity being requested state-wide by data centres.
Reports indicate that the facility would be entirely disconnected from the Texas electricity grid, at least initially.
