Milam County / Sandow Lakes

SB Energy · Rockdale, Texas

Not built yet. Every figure below is what it would take and emit at the capacity its owners have announced.

Water — consumed, not returned

Where the water comes from

Municipal potable supply

Cooling

Closed-loop liquid

Basis

Modelled from cooling design — WUE 0.10 L/kWh

Air — what the stacks emit

Where it burns

ERCOT — Texas + 25% turbines on the site itself

Generation mix

Gas 40 · Wind 24 · Solar 11 · Coal 13 · Nuclear 9

Emitted at the fence line

33% of this site's criteria pollution

CO₂e

3,907 kt/yr — climate, not air quality

Who wanted it

Who asked for it

OpenAI — SB Energy develops on the Sandow Lakes industrial site

Who approved it

Milam County agreements; the site carries interconnection inherited from the retired Alcoa aluminium smelter and its lignite mine

What it serves

OpenAI compute under Stargate

IT capacity

0 MW running of 1,200 MW announced

An aluminium smelter's old interconnection being reused for compute is the cleanest illustration of what AI load actually replaces: heavy industry that left, and the grid capacity it left behind.

Where it is

30.6500°, -97.0000°

Google Maps Satellite See it on the map

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.