CERAWEEK-NextEra secures land in Texas for giant gas plant to power data centers, CEO says

By Laila Kearney

HOUSTON, March 23 (Reuters) - NextEra Energy NEE.N has secured land in Texas for a gas-fired plant to power a large data center campus backed by a U.S.-Japan agreement, the company’s CEO said on Monday.

The power provider announced last week that the administration of President Donald Trump approved the development of two large gas plants, totaling about 10 gigawatts, in Texas and Pennsylvania to help meet the surging electricity needs of data centers.

Under the agreement, the $33 billion projects would be developed and operated by NextEra but owned jointly by the United States and Japan as part of a broader trade deal between the two countries.

NextEra has so far procured land for the Texas facility, which is expected to have more than 5 GW of capacity, CEO John Ketchum told Reuters at the CERAWeek conference in Houston.

The company has not yet purchased land for the Pennsylvania site, he said, adding that additional land and permits will also be required.

Since early 2024, big technology companies have been racing to secure massive quantities of power for data centers, which are used in the training and deployment of technologies like artificial intelligence.

While data center operators are expected to spend about $600 billion on AI infrastructure this year, it remains unclear which of the many power-related data center projects announced over the past two years will ultimately get built.

Before NextEra’s data center power projects can make significant progress, the company must finalize a definitive agreement with the Japanese government, Ketchum said.

“Preliminary terms and conditions have already been discussed, outlined and agreed to, but we have to incorporate those into definitive agreements to move these projects forward,” he said.

The company will also need to secure additional land and permits, he added.