Google · Meta · Ellis County developers · Midlothian, Texas
Water — consumed, not returned
Taken from the basin523M gal/yr
Evaporated on site150M gal
Making the power373M gal
Basin stressHigh
Where the water comes from
Reclaimed / recycled water
Cooling
Mixed; reclaimed water where available
Basis
Modelled from cooling design — WUE 0.34 L/kWh
Air — what the stacks emit
Nitrogen oxides233t/yr
Sulphur dioxide266t/yr
Fine particulates36.6t PM2.5
Health damages$32.3M/yr
Where it burns
ERCOT — Texas
Generation mix
Gas 40 · Wind 24 · Solar 11 · Coal 13 · Nuclear 9
CO₂e
585 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
Who wanted it
Who asked for it
Google and Meta, each with separate campuses in Ellis County
Who approved it
Ellis County and City of Midlothian abatements; ERCOT interconnection; Texas SB6 curtailment rules now apply to loads over 75 MW
What it serves
Google Cloud us-south1 and Meta app serving
IT capacity
300 MW running of 900 MW announced
Texas SB6, passed in 2025, is the first US law letting a grid operator order data centers to disconnect during emergencies — a direct response to the winter-storm risk that ERCOT loads now represent.
Water and air figures are modelled from disclosed capacity, not measured — site-level
error is roughly ±40%. Diesel backup generators are not counted, so on-site figures are floors.
Full method.