Oracle Switches to Bloom Energy Fuel Cells for New Mexico AI Data Center

Oracle has dropped plans to build a natural gas plant at its OpenAI data center in New Mexico and will instead partner with Bloom Energy to generate on-site electricity. The company issued a press release last week announcing the Bloom Energy partnership for Project Jupiter, the New Mexico site that is part of Oracle and OpenAI's $300 billion cloud computing contract.

Oracle cited its commitment to community priorities and said Bloom's technology will dramatically reduce water use and protect local air quality at the Project Jupiter data center.

Project Jupiter developers filed air quality permit applications for a natural gas plant with the New Mexico Environment Department in October. Those applications were withdrawn on April 27, according to NMED's online records database. The public hearing on Project Jupiter's gas plant permit will no longer be held.

The New Mexico Environment Department received more than 7,000 comments on Project Jupiter's permit applications, many of them concerning the plant's potential impact on water use and air quality. NMED said it would need to schedule a public hearing to address the significant amount of comments.

In March and April, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the New Mexico State Land Office denied requests related to a proposed natural gas pipeline for Project Jupiter.

The denials came as local opposition to the project intensified. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center brought two lawsuits on behalf of local activists against Project Jupiter. NMELC says officials approved the data center before crucial environmental, water, and community-impact assessments were conducted.

In March, a New Mexico state court struck down the county's request to dismiss the initial suit. Kacey Hovden, a staff attorney at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said the community concerns have been voiced for almost a year. "They say they're responding to community concerns, but these have been things that have been voiced now for almost a year," Hovden said.

She added that NMELC has the same concerns about Bloom Energy's fuel cell technology as it had about the natural gas plant. New permit applications for the fuel cells were filed with NMED last month. Project Jupiter's fuel cells will use natural gas, according to those applications.

Bloom Energy contends that its technology helps reduce emissions from natural gas use. 8 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 2 million homes according to the Department of Energy. This is Bloom Energy's biggest data center partnership to date.

In 2024, Bloom announced an 80 megawatt project in South Korea. Patrick Hughes, senior vice president of industry affairs at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, said data centers that want to build their own power plants face a litany of constraints.

"You have to balance supply chain concerns and availability, the cost, the speed at which you can get the permits and build it," he said.

Hughes called the pace of data center construction "unprecedented" and likened the AI race and power scramble to the Wild West. Insider reported that community activists aren't yet convinced of the site's new energy plan. Data centers are facing rising opposition from local communities across the country over issues including rising power bills, noise pollution and the use of local resources.