Outside-air economization with evaporative peaking
Basis
Fitted to a published figure of 220 million gallons a year
Air — what the stacks emit
Nitrogen oxides468t/yr
Sulphur dioxide842t/yr
Fine particulates77.2t PM2.5
Health damages$81.3M/yr
Where it burns
SPP — Kansas / Oklahoma
Generation mix
Wind 45 · Gas 26 · Coal 22
CO₂e
760 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
Who wanted it
Who asked for it
Meta — self-build
Who approved it
Sarpy County + Papillion incentives; Omaha Public Power District supply, with OPPD adding gas peakers partly for this load
What it serves
Meta consumer app serving and AI inference
IT capacity
350 MW running of 700 MW announced
OPPD, a public power district answerable to elected board members, has had to add fossil peaking capacity for data center growth — putting the tradeoff directly on a ballot in a way investor-owned utilities avoid.
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.