Oracle is turning to a portfolio of energy and climate solutions to help get the massive New Mexico Stargate data center it’s building with OpenAI past a significant hurdle: local community opposition.
Project Jupiter, a $165-billion project in the southern part of the state, near the Texas border, has faced significant local pushback over concerns related to air quality, noise, and water. The original design for the project relied on conventional gas turbines and diesel generators, but earlier this spring Oracle and OpenAI announced they’d instead rely on a microgrid fully powered by 2.45 gigawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cells, which also run on fossil gas, though emit less nitrous oxide than turbines.
But that shift wasn’t enough to mitigate the community push-back. Now, the project is seeking two GW of “new renewable energy in New Mexico” to offset those fuel cells and support its goal of “100% carbon-free energy matching by 2031.” Those renewables should come online between 2027 and 2031, with priority for those with “accelerated” timelines, Oracle said this week.
The company will also publish a dashboard with the project’s environmental data, and spend $1 million for research into carbon capture and sequestration systems to pair with the fuel cells.
Many other data center projects are turning toward renewables as a speed-to-power solution. Even as gas-powered data centers continue to dominate development pipelines — evidenced by the fact that the U.S. nearly doubled the gas-fired capacity it is developing to directly power data centers in the first half of this year — developers are increasingly warming to the long-term advantages of renewables.
The approach of procuring clean energy to offset emissions or to build local support isn’t unusual, though the scale of Oracle’s procurement target, almost the capacity of the data center itself, is notable. The announcement comes as local opposition to the project has delayed the hearing process for the air quality permit it needs to operate its fuel cells, a key chokepoint for the project moving forward. Environmental groups have filed numerous legal challenges, including with the New Mexico Supreme Court, which in late August paused the permit proceedings.
State opposition, federal support
One key issue cited by project opposition is the status of a planned fossil gas pipeline that would supply the project with roughly 400 million cubic feet per day of gas. That pipeline, dubbed the “Green Chile Project” and developed by Energy Transfer, will be the sole fuel source for the cells. The pipeline has run into numerous hurdles, and its future status isn’t currently clear, so the environmental groups have argued that it would therefore be premature to consider Project Jupiter’s permit.
Earlier this spring, New Mexico’s state land commissioner denied the pipeline project’s application for rights-of-way across state trust lands, where the project would install the pipeline as well as construct buildings and a backup generator. That ruling pushed back the pipeline’s in-service date from August 2026 to February 2027, and forced Project Jupiter to re-route the pipeline to avoid the land in question.
At the same time, though, the federal government moved to expedite the pipeline. In May, the Bureau of Land Management said it would accelerate the review process for the portion of the pipeline on federal land. BLM cited emergency permitting powers that the Trump administration implemented last year, which it said would take the process for a range of fossil fuel sources down to just 28 days.
Project Jupiter has significant federal support, as one of the flagship Stargate sites President Trump announced in the wake of his inauguration last year. That push includes executive orders that fast-track NEPA review and other federal support mechanisms for large data centers.
Separately, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating certain public-notice requirements for industrial air permits. That could make it harder for communities to challenge projects like Jupiter, even as Oracle’s most recent moves target increased transparency and decreased emissions.
Oracle’s announcement comes in the wake of a 30% revenue increase last quarter for the company, up to $19.3 billion.
