Microsoft and Chevron plan a 20-year power deal for Project Kilby, a 2.67-gigawatt natural gas power plant in West Texas built to supply dedicated electricity for Microsoft’s AI and cloud data centers—an enormous energy shift that clashes with Microsoft’s stat
On Monday, Microsoft and Chevron laid out a deal that sounds simple until you look at the numbers: a 2.67-gigawatt natural gas power plant in West Texas, built to feed the kind of AI and cloud demand that has been reshaping the data-center business.
The project—known as Project Kilby—will be paired with a power purchase agreement lasting 20 years. Under that agreement, the plant will supply dedicated electricity to a Microsoft-operated data center. Chevron said the development will be “among the largest co-located natural gas power and data center developments in the U.S.”.
The generating setup is built around two large GE Vernova turbines. with a second component meant to fill in the rest of the output. Caterpillar subsidiary Solar Turbines will provide the remaining generation. Solar Turbines is a name that tech watchers may recognize: xAI has used Solar Turbines in an unpermitted power plant near Memphis.
Microsoft will buy power from the plant for 20 years, tying long-term electricity supply directly to the company’s AI and cloud operations.
For Microsoft, the move lands with extra weight because the company has been making sustainability promises at the same time. Microsoft has pledged to eliminate its carbon emissions by 2030. Project Kilby, however, is an obvious complication. The Environmental Integrity Project estimates the power plant will potentially release more than 13 million tons of carbon dioxide. 3. 200 tons of criteria air pollutants. and 278. 000 pounds of hazardous air pollutants.
There’s a tightening contradiction here: a company pushing hard for carbon elimination is also securing large. dedicated power from a natural gas facility designed to run for two decades. The deal puts a clear line between Microsoft’s AI growth plans and the emissions profile of the energy that powers them.
The plan may answer a practical question—how to secure electricity at the scale data centers now require. But it also forces a harder one to the surface: whether long-term dependence on gas can coexist with Microsoft’s stated timeline for carbon elimination.
Microsoft Chevron Project Kilby West Texas natural gas power plant data centers AI cloud power purchase agreement GE Vernova Solar Turbines sustainability carbon emissions Environmental Integrity Project criteria air pollutants hazardous air pollutants
So Microsoft is “saving the planet” while building a gas plant… okay.
I don’t get why they can’t just do wind or solar like everyone keeps yelling about. West Texas gas for 20 years feels like they already gave up. The numbers in the article are wild though, like 13 million tons??
Wait Solar Turbines provided the “rest of the output” right? Isn’t Solar Turbines like literally solar panels? Lol maybe I’m mixing it up. But either way, if it’s gas-powered then the whole AI thing is just marketing.
This is exactly why I don’t trust any of these big tech sustainability promises. They’ll say carbon elimination by 2030 but then sign a 20-year gas deal… that’s basically the opposite, unless “eliminate” means something different. Also Chevron being involved is a little weird, like how is this not a conflict or whatever? Anyway, West Texas gonna be loud forever.