Green Data Community FAQ
We're pleased to be releasing the first community FAQ for our flagship 2GW data center campus in Socorro, New Mexico
When we announced our proposed 2GW facility west of Socorro, we knew the questions would follow, as they should. Community scrutiny is exactly what responsible development looks like, and we're grateful for it.
In last week's launch post, we wrote about building "Green From the Ground Up." The data center industry is discovering what we've believed from the start: renewable facilities produce the best economics because they do right by the environment and local communities.
Here's what this means in practice for Socorro:
💧 Water: The water fill for a closed loop 10MW amount of compute is roughly the same amount of water as is typically used to water a quarter-acre lawn for the month of August. That's it. We get there through on-site atmospheric water harvesting and a closed-loop cooling system.
⚡ Power: No natural gas. No combustion of any kind. Our load runs on solar PV and grid-scale battery storage, designed to carry 24/7 computing demand. Socorro Electric Cooperative ratepayers won't be asked to build capacity to serve us. We simply won't need much grid power and plan to be a net exporter of low cost solar power.
👷 Jobs: High hundreds to over 1,000 skilled trade and construction positions across a 10-year buildout. Permanent roles in engineering, water systems, operations, and security. Graduate research positions and internships through NM Tech. We're also working to bring manufacturing to the area for portions of our specialized power and cooling equipment, creating additional long-term local employment.
We chose Socorro because its solar irradiance is among the highest in North America. It's sufficient to power our entire operation, including the Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG) that make this facility possible.
We've collectively built over $20B of renewable and data center infrastructure. We've seen what works, what fails, and what the next generation of facilities needs to look like. Socorro is poised to become one of the most distinctive data center locations in North America. There is nowhere else quite like it.
This FAQ is the first of several. Town halls with NM Tech and our community partners are scheduled over the coming months. Pushback is welcome, this project is better for the asking.
Questions? Our community team is here: socorro@greendatacenters.com
Follow Green Data for updates on Socorro, Spaceport America, and Haskell, TX.
Our Water, Power, and Partnership Commitments
Prepared for residents of Socorro County following partnership conversations with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Thank you for taking the time to review this FAQ. We have heard the questions raised in recent community meetings, letters to the editor, and discussions at the NM Tech Board of Regents, and we want to answer them as directly as we can. This document explains how our proposed facility differs from the gas-burning, water-intensive data centers now drawing criticism across the country, what commitments we are prepared to put in writing, and where there is still work to do.
Engineering, permitting, design, and partnership negotiations are ongoing, and we will update this document as the design progresses. Feedback and pushback are welcome. This project is better for the asking.
About the Project
Q1. What is Green Data Centers’ project?
A. We are proposing to develop a renewable-powered data center on land west of Socorro, in active partnership conversations with the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NM Tech). Unlike legacy data centers built in the United States, our facility is designed from the ground up around two principles that directly address the community’s concerns: it runs on on-site solar generation with grid-scale battery storage, and it uses on-site atmospheric water generation (AWG) coupled with closed-loop air cooling.
Q2. Why Socorro, and what would a partnership with NM Tech mean?
A. NM Tech is one of the nation’s leading research institutions in hydrology, atmospheric science, and energy systems: the three disciplines most relevant to a responsible data center. Socorro also offers the solar irradiance, land availability, and fiber routes needed for a next-generation facility.
We are in ongoing discussions with NM Tech to design and structure a partnership. The framework under discussion includes dedicated resources for university research, curriculum alignment for workforce development, infrastructure sharing, internships and sponsored research, and additional financial and economic incentives. Our intent is for NM Tech to be a direct collaborator on, and beneficiary of, what gets built, not a sponsorship arrangement dressed up as a partnership.
Q3. Why should we trust this will be different from the data centers we read about?
A. Most data centers draw opposition for two reasons: they burn natural gas (or rely on gas-heavy grids), and they evaporate millions of gallons of municipal drinking water per day or pump heavily from local aquifers. Recent peer-reviewed research (Han et al., 2026) documents that typical large data centers evaporate roughly 75% of the water they withdraw, with peak daily demand commonly reaching 1 to 8 million gallons per day per facility, a load that can overwhelm a public water system Socorro's size. Our design eliminates both exposures.
There is no on-site gas plant or peaker planned. Power comes from on-site solar photovoltaic arrays paired with lithium battery storage, sized to carry the computing load. For cooling, the facility combines closed-loop air-cooled server architecture with on-site AWG. We are committing to publishing our power source and water use metrics on a regular basis so the community can verify these claims rather than having to take them on faith.
Water: The Core Question
Q4. How much water will the data center use?
A. Based on current planning assumptions and capacity targets, we are evaluating water demand in the range of 6 million gallons in total to fill the data center over 7-8 years. As the design and engineering process progresses, this estimate will continue to be refined. For scale: a 10 MW building requires roughly a 30,000-gallon initial fill, and that water is then reused continuously over the course of the year. Thirty thousand gallons is approximately the volume used in a single August month to water the front and back lawn of a typical 0.25-acre residential home.
Our project is designed around on-site atmospheric water generation (AWG) and a closed-loop air- cooling system.
Q5. What is atmospheric water generation (AWG)?
A. AWG extracts water vapor from the surrounding air and condenses it into liquid water. The systems use vapor-compression refrigeration to concentrate atmospheric moisture and release it as clean water. AWG has been deployed at residential, military, disaster-relief, and municipal scales for over a decade.
For our project, AWG units will be powered by the same on-site solar array that powers the computing load.
Q6. Socorro is dry. Does AWG actually work in our climate?
A. Yes, with honest caveats. AWG performance scales with humidity, so output is highest in summer and lowest in deep winter. Our design works with that profile rather than against it: water production is concentrated in the more humid months, when cooling demand also peaks, and excess production is banked in on-site storage to carry the system through drier periods. Our system is being sized to that realistic year-round profile, with water production weighted heavily to the summer months when humidity and cooling load peak together. The strategy is to maximize generation during the more humid periods and "bank" water in on-site storage for use through the drier months.
Site-specific production estimates, generated from local temperature and humidity records, are guiding our equipment sizing. Design work for the on-site systems is ongoing, and the numbers will be refined and published as the design matures.
Q7. Will atmospheric water generation affect the local environment or weather?
No. Atmospheric water generators (AWG) condense water vapor that's already moving through the air above the site, they don't draw from rivers, aquifers, or any other local water source. Because the atmosphere over central New Mexico is constantly replenished by moisture flowing in from the Gulf of California and Gulf of Mexico, particularly during monsoon season, the air is not a closed reservoir.
The volumes involved are very small relative to the atmosphere they come from. The amount of water vapor moving across a site of this size on a typical monsoon day is orders of magnitude greater than what the facility would condense, and prevailing winds continuously replenish the air column above the site with new moisture from upwind. There is no measurable effect on local humidity, downwind precipitation, or regional weather patterns.
Q8. What is the backup plan if AWG falls short?
A. The closed-loop air-cooling system is engineered so that only a small amount of make-up water is needed for humidity control. If AWG output is temporarily below target, that modest make-up requirement can be met from on-site stored water in holding tanks. This water will be acculated over time so it does not impact the city/county supply.
Power: Solar + Storage
Q9. Will the project burn natural gas, on-site or nearby?
A. No. There is no on-site natural gas combustion planned for this facility, and we are not pursuing a gas-fired peaker or turbine. Electricity will be supplied by on-site solar PV coupled with grid-scale battery storage, designed to provide firm, 24/7 power to the computing load. By bringing our own generation and storage, we keep the burden off Socorro Electric Cooperative and regional ratepayers rather than asking them to expand fossil capacity to serve us.
Q10. What happens at night, in winter, or during prolonged cloudy periods?
A. The solar array and battery storage are being sized together to cover daily and multi-day cloud events. Where possible, computing workloads at the site will be designed as "load-flexible," able to shift to the hours when solar output is most abundant.
A grid interconnection will be in place as backup, used most often during the November to January window when solar output is at its annual minimum. Our design baseline is that on-site solar plus storage carries the load in the great majority of operating hours, with grid use concentrated in those deep-winter months. We will not pretend the facility never touches the grid, but we are deliberately not designing it to lean on the grid as a routine supply.
Q11. Will this project raise our electricity rates?
A. No. Green Data intends to build and use behind-the-meter renewable generation (the on-site solar farm) and to fund its own substation infrastructure, with those costs borne entirely by Green Data rather than local ratepayers. Our levelized cost of energy is below average residential utility rates, and during summer months there is the potential to export surplus generation back to the grid.
If anything, this puts downward pressure on local rates rather than upward pressure.
Land, Environment, and Cultural Resources
Q12. What are the heat and temperature effects on the local microclimate?
A. Modern data centers use highly efficient thermal management. Thermal-dispersion modeling is required as part of the design process and is expected to demonstrate no measurable impact on the microclimate of the Socorro valley.
Q13. How will wildlife and biodiversity be affected?
A. A comprehensive biological resource survey is required and will be performed as part of the engineering and design process. If sensitive wildlife habitats are identified, we are legally mandated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise site layouts and adjust construction timelines to avoid any impacts.
Q14. What about dark skies and the observatories?
A. The facility will follow International Dark-Sky Association lighting practices. The Data Center campus will be 100 percent dark-sky compliant, and exterior lighting will be designed for zero upward light. This protects Socorro’s exceptional dark skies and the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.
Q15. How will 24/7 cooling-system noise affect residents and wildlife?
A. The project will be designed and built to comply with all applicable local codes, including those governing ambient noise. Our large site will be designed to ensure sound abatement best practices are followed with equipment selection, landscaping buffers, and distances to ensure sound dissipates well before reaching adjacent property lines. An acoustic study will be submitted to demonstrate compliance with local noise ordinances.
Jobs and Economic Impact
Q16. How many jobs, and what kinds?
A. Construction will support hundreds to low thousands of jobs at peak, phased across several years. Steady-state operations will support a mix of skilled technicians, electricians, mechanical and controls engineers, water-systems operators, security, and facility staff, plus research positions and graduate assistantships through NM Tech. These are 24/7 facilities and require continuous staffing.
Beyond the facility itself, Green Data is in active discussions to relocate several of its suppliers to New Mexico in order to harden its supply chain. If those discussions advance, hundreds of additional secondary manufacturing jobs would follow.
More detail on the staffing plans will be available later in our process.
Q17. Who is funding this project, and who profits most?
A. The project is privately funded by Green Data and its investment partners. While the developers and tenants profit from the operating facility itself, the local municipality and community profit through long-term property taxes, land lease revenues, and the localized economic multiplier effect of hundreds of well-paid technical jobs and a growing skilled-labor base. There are no local investors in the project.
Q18. What does Socorro get out of this?
A. The project will generate unprecedented tax revenue for Socorro County and local schools without placing a proportional burden on municipal services. For NMT, the proximity of a data center opens pathways for advanced research partnerships, student internships, and potential fiber optic infrastructure upgrades to benefit the campus. These partnerships also create a pipeline of employment opportunities for a skilled workforce for decades to come.
Governance, Permits, and Accountability
Q19. Are there any conflicts of interest among decision-makers?
A. No. All site selection, zoning, and permitting processes must adhere to local and state ethics laws, and public officials involved in this project are bound by statutory disclosure requirements.
Q20. Will the community have a vote or meaningful input in the decision?
A. Yes. The required permitting processes include mandatory public comment periods and town hall sessions where residents can review impact studies and voice concerns. Those windows are not optional; they are statutory parts of the approval pathway.
Q21. What permits and approvals are required?
A. A comprehensive and coordinated permitting strategy will be implemented to ensure all federal, state, and local requirements are fully addressed before construction begins. Because the project sits on land owned by the State of New Mexico, the majority of permitting activity will occur at the state and federal levels.
Federal permitting may involve coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, and FEMA. State permitting and approvals may be managed through agencies including the New Mexico Surface Water Bureau, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Office of the State Engineer, the Historic Preservation Division, and the Department of Game and Fish. While state and federal processes are anticipated to be the primary pathways, applicable local jurisdictional requirements will also be evaluated and addressed as part of the overall permitting strategy.
Q22. What legal recourse exists if commitments aren’t met?
A. The same binding permit conditions and development-agreement obligations that govern noise, light, emissions, water use, and infrastructure also create legal recourse. If any facility fails to meet those conditions, state and federal agencies have the authority to levy heavy daily fines or to revoke operating licenses entirely.
Decommissioning and Long-term Stewardship
Q23. What happens when the technology becomes obsolete?
A. The buildings themselves are designed to last decades. Some of the earliest data centers built by major companies in the late 1980s remain in active use today. The technology inside changes (chips get smaller, racks get denser), but the physical buildings remain current and continue to host successive generations of computing equipment.
Q24. Will there be an escrow fund or bond for cleanup and land restoration?
A. Land remediation for projects of this kind is typically addressed through decommissioning bonds that secure the removal of non-permanent fixtures such as solar arrays and battery enclosures. Permanent buildings, including the data halls themselves, are usually retained because they continue to provide commercial and industrial value to successor uses. In all cases, Green Data Centers will coordinate with NM Tech and local authorities to negotiate appropriate, written protections for the community.
Q25. Who is contractually responsible for decommissioning?
A. The developer is typically responsible for decommissioning those project elements that are intended to be removed. Because these assets are long-lived, decommissioning is most often funded through long-term bonds covering removal of non-permanent fixtures. Those arrangements will be negotiated with NM Tech and Socorro County and will be fully funded as part of the construction phase, not deferred to a future operator.
A Note on What Is Still Being Finalized
This FAQ reflects design intent and commitments as of May 2026. Several elements (site-specific AWG production yields and sizing, final solar and battery sizing, the final site boundary, and the structure of the NM Tech partnership) remain in active engineering, design, and negotiation. We will update this document as those numbers and arrangements firm up, and we will share material changes with the community before they are finalized. Feedback and pushback are welcome.
Contact: Community Engagement Team, Green Data Centers. Email us at socorro@greendatacenters.com.
