Tom Green County: Data Center Site #3 Revealed

San Angelo Chamber of Commerce executive Michael Looney stated that four data centers are interested in the area.  He did so at an Economic Development Board meeting.  

Two of the projects are known to the public.  A third has been revealed.

1)  The Skybox/Emergent in San Angelo is actively being marketed.  

2)  Beacon Data Centers expressed interest and met with the community, which clearly told them to look elsewhere.  They returned and met with Tom Green County Commissioners.

The other two sites have not been named, by interested party or location in the county. 

3) Cipher Digital (below is how I learned this). 

I sent a letter outlining my data center concerns to City Council (the subject of a future post).  San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson replied:

If the regulations are put in place, the discussion moves to the economic impact, benefits, and risks.

I believe the data center project adjacent to Skybox continues to move forward, as it does not have the restrictions the city has in place. 

The political climate has kept that project clear of the city, which has had the opposite effect of the coalition's intent of regulatory guidelines. 

ERCOT and AEP appear to be prioritizing the non-city property project for power allotments.

A data center next to Skybox/Emergent would be the third location (however not in city limits like Skybox).  

I followed up and learned that site is a potential data center for Cipher Digital.  

In a recent CNBC interview Cipher Digital's CEO noted their announced pipeline will tap the Texas electrical grid (i.e. not provide their own power).

Cipher Digital's CEO noted his company's land holdings in energy abundant West Texas.  

He did not mention his company's consideration of "private land a quarter mile east of" the proposed Skybox/Emergent site in Northeast San Angelo, just outside of city limits, but his corporate documents show a number of Texas projects.  

Cipher has a project known as Mikeska in Doole which is past Paint Rock.  I don't know if that's a quirk of landowner addresses.   Time will reveal if Mikeska is the site close to Skybox or not.

Cipher Digital has a Lancium (Stargate-Abilene) like history.  It began as a bitcoin miner taking advantage of stranded renewable energy.  They switched goldrushes from bitcoin to AI and demand is off the charts.  

At their recent meeting Tom Green County Commissioners tried to steer Beacon Data Centers to this part of town, however Joseph Shovlin did not seem receptive to a move from their current site at the intersection of Highway 2335 and Highway 67 given its access to Spring Creek for water use and discharging treated water.  He also saw proximity to the railroad as another plus.  

Shovlin showed his ignorance when he assumed the local community could absorb 1,200 new construction workers easily.  Beacon has no plans to provide temporary housing.   

One month ago Chamber of Commerce executive Michael Looney interviewed Tom Green County Judge Lane Carter about business growth in the area and specifically addressed data centers.  They addressed the issue of power/electricity needed by data centers.  Judge Carter cited solar and wind power, as well as abundant natural gas.

While the state rolls out the red carpet to power hungry and water usurping data centers, it turned our residential solar power system with battery backup into a nonperformer.  At a time when we should be getting top dollar for the power generated Reliant is literally giving us nickels when before they gave dimes.

Data center water usage (Beacon) - 400 acre feet per year.   Over 3 data centers that's 1,200 acre feet 

Water usage for 3,600 construction workers (1,200 per data center) - 730 acre feet per year

The Cipher Digital CEO interview is below for those who wish to view it.  Pay attention to what he says about Tier I vs Tier III sites:

Is anybody fighting mad?  To be clear I am speaking about the non-violent kind of standing up.  From my perspective the rules keep changing and not in the little guys favor.

AI Data Centers/Power Plants are flocking to Texas because of tax breaks in the Big Beautiful Bill and the chance to bypass state sales tax for extremely large capital outlays.  These incentives were set up by federal and state leaders, not local officials.  

San Angelo had a West Texas Utilities power plant on Lake Nasworthy and it discharged its cooling water into "Hot Water Slough."  Now such facilities will be located within the data center complex.

Our federal elected officials need to hear from constituents.  So do our state elected officials.  Those of us who lived through the Shale Boom know exactly what is coming.  Abilene is showing us that very thing at the moment.

Violence is never a solution.  Make your position clear to your representatives,  Thank heaven our local officials listen.  What is happening in many cases is beyond their control.

Federal and state officials clearly want to change our way of life.  Ask them to strike some kind of balance, because currently none exists.  

Update 6-6-26:  Cipher Digital has a major stockholder V3 Holdings, a Singapore investment firm.  V3 owns 15% of Cipher's stock.