Gigawatt Ledger · one-page briefing
Campus profile Under construction
Frontier
Vantage Data Centers · Shackelford County, Texas
The resource footprint
Modelled averageIn one day, this campus would consume about
10.950-metre swimming pools
Filled with the volume of water consumed by the campus and its electricity supply.
The actual estimate7,176,570 US gallons consumed
Power-plant water may come from a different watershed. This is a volume comparison, not a claim that households lose this water.
If announced plans are fully built · Not operating yet · Annual model spread evenly over time, not a live meter. Site estimates may differ by roughly ±40%.
Comparison sizes & sources
One pool = 50 × 25 × 2 metres = 2.5 million litres (about 660,430 US gallons). Pool depths vary; this is a defined comparison size.
One home-year = 10,791 kWh, the EIA’s 2022 average US residential electricity purchases. This excludes electricity generated at home and is a fixed US benchmark for all sites.
One car-year = 4.6 tonnes CO₂, the EPA’s typical passenger vehicle tailpipe estimate. The campus model is in CO₂e; the comparison expresses approximate climate scale, not equal mixtures of pollutants.
Monthly values are annual totals ÷ 12; daily values are annual totals ÷ 365. Actual demand varies. Comparisons cover the whole campus, including non-AI uses.
Water: see the numbers and sources
This is water used up, mainly through evaporation. Power-generation water may be used in a different watershed.
- Pressure on local water
- High — a regional measure of demand compared with available water
- Where the water comes from
- Municipal potable supply
- Cooling
- Closed-loop liquid
- Basis
- Modelled from cooling design — WUE 0.08 L/kWh
Air: see the numbers and sources
The totals include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and fine particles. They cover both this site and the power plants supplying it.
- Health range
- $82.4–238 million a year. Lower bound is EASIUR national mid-range; upper is EPA benefit-per-ton at a ~$12M VSL.
- Statistical deaths
- 19.9 a year at that VSL — a national-average conversion from tons, not a local concentration study.
- Equals
- 3,053,307 cars of NOx
- Where it burns
- ERCOT — Texas + 20% turbines on the site itself
- Generation mix
- Gas 40 · Wind 24 · Solar 11 · Coal 13 · Nuclear 9
- Emitted at the fence line
- 27% of this site's criteria pollution
- Diesel backup
- Research found 670+ gas reciprocating engines (2.58 GW) proposed as on-site generation — prime power, not backup diesel.
- CO₂e
- 4,530 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
The project, approvals and community concerns
- Who asked for it
- Undisclosed hyperscale customers; Vantage has said the campus is substantially pre-leased
- Who approved it
- Shackelford County abatements; ERCOT interconnection; Texas SB6 (2025) large-load curtailment obligations apply
- What it serves
- Hyperscale AI tenants — leases signed, tenant names withheld
- IT capacity
- 0 MW current capacity / 1,400 MW full-build scenario
A $25B, 1.4 GW campus on ranch land an hour from Abilene. Texas SB6 now lets ERCOT order loads this size to curtail during emergencies — the first US law treating data centers as dispatchable demand.
Keep this guide handy
32.7500°, -99.3500°
Quote or share these estimates
Gigawatt Ledger (2026). Frontier: water and air. https://gigawatt-ledger.pages.dev/site/shackelford/. Modelled from disclosed capacity; site-level error ±40%.
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Gigawatt Ledger · September 2026. Water and air figures are estimated from public records and disclosed capacity. How we calculate them · Use this in your community.