From Ars Technica · · 2m
Oracle's 2 GW renewables promise won't power Stargate
Oracle is buying goodwill in New Mexico with clean energy credits, while the data center still burns natural gas.
In brief
Oracle is buying goodwill in New Mexico with clean energy credits, while the data center still burns natural gas. Carbon-free matching is an accounting move, not a power source. Project Jupiter's fuel cells still run on gas, and it could become New Mexico's biggest emitter. Originally reported by Ars Technica.
A peace offering in the desert
Oracle pledged to fund 2 gigawatts of renewable projects in New Mexico on September 8, as local opposition threatens to stall the data center it is building for OpenAI.
The $165 billion neighbor
Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa is part of Stargate, the AI buildout Trump announced in 2025. It has drawn protests and court battles over its environmental footprint.
Matching is not powering
The renewables would sit somewhere else in the state. Oracle claims their environmental attributes on paper while gas-fed fuel cells do the actual work.
“this would be synthetic in the sense that 2 GW of renewables wouldn't directly power the data center”
Twenty years of progress, gone
The original plan called for 2.2 GW of gas turbines and up to 14 million tons of CO2 a year, enough to erase two decades of New Mexico's emissions cuts.
“wiped out 20 years of carbon emissions reductions in the state of New Mexico”
The pipeline that never got built
New Mexico's Land Office twice blocked requests to run a gas pipeline to the site in Doña Ana County. That pressure pushed the project from turbines to fuel cells.
Fuel cells clean up the air
Bloom Energy's 2.45 GW of fuel cells skip combustion entirely, cutting nitrogen oxides by over 90 percent and reducing carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide too.
Still the biggest emitter
Oracle says gas is what's available and reliable in the region. Even under the new plan, the data center could be the single largest source of emissions in New Mexico.
“even with the new plan, the data center could be the largest source of emissions in the state”
Dashboards and a court pause
Oracle promised a public dashboard for air, noise, heat, light, and water data, plus third-party audits. The state Supreme Court paused air permitting on August 23.
Why Oracle can't wait
The company took on $125 billion in debt to build these sites. Construction hit 26 percent despite the court order, and the CFO insists the schedule is on track.
“In terms of construction, [the] data center is definitely on track.”
The takeaway
Carbon-free matching is an accounting move, not a power source. Project Jupiter's fuel cells still run on gas, and it could become New Mexico's biggest emitter.
