As I wrote about earlier this week, xAI has broken ground on a second data center on Tulane Road here in Memphis that will require an unbelievable amount of electricity. Today, the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce sent an email saying:
xAI is demobilizing turbines in Shelby County and has no plans to site any turbines at its Tulane location. The company continues to evaluate various power solutions for its Memphis facilities while working within all applicable regulatory frameworks.
However, as Samuel Hardiman at The Daily Memphian reports, The Southern Environmental Law Center obtained a document outlining plans to do just that: using gas turbines to help power the massive supercomputer.
Here’s a bit from the SELC’s press release:
Methane gas turbines release smog-forming pollution and hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde. These pollutants are tied to increases in asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, and certain cancers and are especially harmful to children. XAI’s second data center is planned for South Memphis’ Whitehaven neighborhood and is roughly half a mile from homes and a school.
“XAI appears to be preparing for a truly staggering number of polluting turbines for its second South Memphis data center, all while continuing to run unpermitted turbines nearby,” Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. “Memphians have repeatedly told local leaders they have serious concerns about how these data centers and their use of gas turbines will impact the air they breathe every day. Local leaders and health officials should be standing with the communities they serve—not a power-hungry company with a history of breaking the rules.”
This week, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced xAI would be removing an undisclosed number of gas turbines—which the company had been operating without any permits—from its first South Memphis location. However, this new discovery raises significant concerns that the company may be planning to move the polluting turbines from one South Memphis data center to another.
Hardiman writes:
The Tulane Road data center is much closer to a large population base than the company’s other data center. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates 64,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Southaven Combined Cycle Plant, a mere 100 yards from xAI’s Tulane Road site.
And:
The document describes the plans for turbines as a greenfield use. Since buying the land in early March, the company has cleared dozens of acres at the Tulane Road site.
The document indicates plans were submitted to the Shelby County Health Department in a request for feedback.
“This will be a grass roots operation and facility. The proposed facility will produce its own electricity for sale and will include simple cycle combustion turbines (CT) and supporting equipment,” the document said.
As seen here, the SELC has photographic evidence that some 35 turbines have been in operation at xAI’s initial data center, despite Memphis Mayor Paul Young claiming in mid April that only 15 were in use. If 15 strikes you as an oddly specific number, it’s because the Shelby County Health Department’s permit to xAI only covers 15 permanent units.
If the plan outlined in this documents comes to pass, there could be anywhere between 40 to 90 turbines running in south Memphis across the two sites.