Oracle’s AI campus in New Mexico is set to see its permitted annual greenhouse gas emissions reduced from 8.8 to 5.7 million tonnes; opponents are demanding to see the calculation models.
Oracle and microgrid developer Yucca Growth Infrastructure submitted on October 15 a revised version of Project Jupiter, a gigantic AI computing campus in Santa Teresa, Doña Ana County, New Mexico. The site is to draw its electricity from a microgrid of about 7,000 gas-powered Bloom Energy fuel cells. After the redesign, allowable emissions would fall from 8.8 million to 5.7 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, a 35 percent reduction, with caps on nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, and hazardous pollutants.
The package also includes credits of up to $55 million per year for three years for El Paso Electric customers, a payment of $100 million over ten years for backup power, and a commitment to cover 100% of consumption with carbon-free energy by 2031. More than 4,000 workers are already working on the site.
Hearing postponed to December 7
The hearing on the permit, initially scheduled for September, has been postponed to December 7 at Sunland Park; a motion to dismiss will be examined on October 26. Opponents doubt figures that they consider unverifiable, especially since the agency's modelling shows higher concentrations of pollutants, and ask for the publication of the hypotheses and data.
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