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Artificial intelligence startup xAI, founded by Elon Musk, told city and county planners in Memphis last week that it plans to build a solar farm next to its Colossus data center — one of the world’s largest facilities for training AI models.
The project would occupy 88 acres to the west and to the south of the data center. A 136-acre vacant lot owned by the developer that also owns the Colossus property currently borders the site. Given the proposed size, the solar farm would likely produce around 30 megawatts of electricity, only about 10% of the data center’s estimated power use.
Musk’s company has come under fire for operating over 400 megawatts of natural gas turbines without permits, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). The legal organization, which is working with the NAACP, says that xAI has operated at least 35 turbines capable of emitting more than 2,000 tons of NOX pollution — nitrogen oxide emissions that contribute to smog and respiratory problems — annually.
The turbines have sparked fierce opposition from residents in nearby Boxtown, a predominantly Black community where researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, found that peak nitrogen dioxide concentration levels increased by 79% in areas immediately surrounding the data center after xAI began operations. Community activists have reported increased asthma attacks and respiratory issues since the facility opened.
The AI company has said that it intends to use the turbines until it can secure additional power, but local officials gave xAI a permit to operate 15 turbines through January 2027.
In September, xAI said it would build a 100-megawatt solar farm nearby, which will be paired with 100 megawatts of grid-scale batteries to provide a 24/7 source of electricity.
The company hasn’t disclosed the total cost of that project, but the solar farm’s developer, Seven States Power Corporation, was awarded $439 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of that, $414 million is an interest-free loan.
The federal award is notable given that many clean energy grants and loans have been canceled by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, xAI has added gas turbines in Mississippi to power its Colossus 2 data center. So far, 59 of them are on-site, and the company considers 18 of them temporary, meaning that regulators don’t track their pollution.
