Powering AI in the Permian: Texas Critical Data Centers’ Sustainable Energy Play

The New Era Helium–Sharon AI data center initiative, known as Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC), represents a pioneering effort to integrate sustainable energy solutions with high-performance computing and AI-ready infrastructure.

From when we first reported on this project in November 2024, the effort has grown from its initial 90 MW green energy development. The project now aims to develop a 250-megawatt net-zero energy data center in Ector County, Texas, leveraging natural gas and helium resources from the Permian Basin.

The data center development project is a 50/50 joint venture between New Era Helium and Sharon AI. New Era is a publicly listed, Midland, Texas based exploration and production company specializing in helium extraction from natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin.

The company owns and operates over 137,000 acres in Southeast New Mexico, with more than 1.5 billion cubic feet of proved and probable helium reserves.

Proximity Trifecta

The data center is to be located on a 235-acre site in Ector County, Texas, a location chosen for its proximity to natural gas resources, fiber optic networks, and CO₂ pipeline infrastructure. New Era’s contribution to this project is focused on power generation from natural gas and helium.

The data center will be powered by natural gas engines, with New Era Helium supplying the gas under a fixed-cost agreement for five years, with options to extend. The company will also implement carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies to sequester approximately 250,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually, potentially qualifying for 45Q tax credits.

Will Gray, CEO of New Era Helium Inc, spoke on the project, now that the site selection has been confirmed, saying:

With the initial site now identified, TCDC is poised to execute on its planned power strategy for the behind the meter data center campus. New Era Helium is pleased to be working with GROW Odessa and will work towards the necessary due diligence in order to close on the planned site in a timely manner. While working on the closing of the site in Ector County, the company is in parallel working with certain contractors for the design and buildout of the 250MW data center campus. We are excited about what we are building within the Permian Basin and believe access to cheap and reliable power is key to attracting top tier partners.

Sustainability Upside

This carbon capture angle provides a significant sustainability hook for the overall development of the 250 MW infrastructure. With the current development timeline seeing Phase 1, which aims to bring 100MW online by December 2026, and the remaining capacity becoming operational by mid-2027.

New Era’s flagship energy production project is currently a new 20,000 MCFPD (thousands of cubic meter per day) plant that will be capable of extracting helium from the company’s current natural gas production. Once the facility is operational, as expected in Q2 2025, the production will represent between 1% and 2% of the domestic US energy market.

New Era had previously announced a commitment to integrating sustainable energy solutions with advanced computing infrastructure, with a goal of positioning the company at the intersection of energy production and sustainable digital innovation/digital infrastructure development.

At this time, it has not been announced if energy production will be focused on the grid or as a behind-the-meter solution, or a combination of deliverables, similar to other announcements currently being made as energy production/data center development continue to grow hand in hand.

Notes on Joint Venture

Along in the joint venture with New Era is Sharon AI, a NY-based, high-performance computing company specializing in artificial intelligence infrastructure, GPU compute services, and cloud storage solutions. Established in 2024, the company has rapidly expanded its footprint in the AI infrastructure sector, focusing on delivering scalable, energy-efficient solutions for AI and HPC workloads.

The company currently operates a hybrid infrastructure model, deploying services across both co-location data centers and proprietary facilities.

Their GPU fleet includes NVIDIA H100, L40S, A40, and AMD MI300X units, optimized for AI training and inference tasks. The company emphasizes energy efficiency, utilizing liquid-cooled systems and InfiniBand networking to enhance performance and reduce environmental impact. In 2025 the company plans to add Nvidia H200 generation systems to its GPU fleet, further expanding its service offerings.

As we reported last year, the target for the new data center is, among other things, to deploy the latest in AI reference designs from NVIDIA. At the time, we quoted Wolf Schubert, CEO of Sharon AI Inc. saying:

We are very excited to be building Tier 3 direct-to-chip liquid cooling data centers in the U.S. with our partners at New Era Helium, who bring considerable energy infrastructure experience to the joint venture.

At the time, initial planning and had been completed and the companies were moving forward with engineering discussion.

The joint venture was finalized in January 2025, and the letter of intent to acquire this 235 acre site was signed at the end of February 2025 with GROW Odessa, an economic development corporation formed in the mid-1960’s to foster the expansion and development of business in the Odessa, TX region.

Speaking to the development of this significant data center and energy project, Russell Tippin, President of GROW Odessa, had this to say:

We are thrilled to be working with Sharon AI and New Era Helium on this new project intended to develop a large-scale, net-zero energy data center in Ector County, West Texas. Ector County and the Odessa area are the perfect fit for this net-zero energy data center project and we are proud that Sharon AI has chosen Ector County for this exciting new project. We are looking forward to working with Sharon AI and New Era Helium, Inc. along with the team at the Odessa Development Corporation to move this project to the finish line.

Tippen’s enthusiasm for the project is influenced by the fact that the initiative is expected to create meaningful employment opportunities in the region, impacting locations such as Roswell, New Mexico, Odessa, TX, and Ector County, Texas, and has the potential to generate significant local revenues, both during the buildout and operational phases of the projects.

Other Permian Basin Data Center Projects Leveraging Natural Gas in 2025

As the Permian Basin continues to attract data center developments powered by natural gas, several key projects have emerged in 2025, independent of New Era Helium and SharonAI initiatives.

PowerBridge's $1 Billion Initiative with Five Point Infrastructure

PowerBridge, backed by up to $1 billion from Five Point Infrastructure, is developing data center parks in the Permian Basin. These sites will feature dedicated natural gas-fired power plants, broadband networks, and cooling water infrastructure. The initiative aims to attract tech companies by leveraging the region's abundant natural gas resources and existing oil-and-gas infrastructure.

Diamondback Energy's Joint Venture for Behind-the-Meter Power

Diamondback Energy is pursuing a joint venture to build a gas-fired power plant on its 65,000 acres in the Permian Basin. The plant would supply electricity primarily to data centers, utilizing Diamondback's own natural gas production. This strategy aims to address power shortages in the basin and capitalize on the growing demand from AI data centers.

MMEX Resources' 570 MW Low-Carbon Power Project

MMEX Resources is developing a 570 MW natural gas power generation project in Pecos County, Texas. The facility will use combined cycle technology with future plans to integrate up to 75% hydrogen fuel. Designed with data center-ready infrastructure, the project includes fiber optic connectivity and water resources, targeting commercial operations within 15 to 24 months from the final investment decision.

Stargate AI Campus in Abilene to Include Natural Gas Plant

The Stargate AI data center campus in Abilene, Texas, a joint venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX, plans to include a 360.5 MW natural gas plant. The plant will provide primary and backup power for the data center, utilizing ten simple-cycle natural gas turbines. The project also incorporates renewable energy sources, with contributions from SoftBank's SB Energy.

CloudBurst and Energy Transfer's 1.2 GW Data Center Near San Marcos

CloudBurst Data Centers has entered a long-term agreement with Energy Transfer to supply natural gas for its AI-focused data center near San Marcos, Texas. The Oasis Pipeline will deliver up to 450,000 MMBtu/day, sufficient to generate approximately 1.2 GW of behind-the-meter power. The data center is expected to commence operations in the third quarter of 2026.

Conclusion

Taken together, these initiatives affirm the Permian Basin’s emergence as a strategically vital nexus for natural gas-powered digital infrastructure -- where the convergence of stranded energy assets, purpose-built data center construction, and surging AI workloads is actively redrawing the physical and economic contours of hyperscale development.

At Data Center Frontier, we talk the industry talk and walk the industry walk. In that spirit, DCF Staff members may occasionally use AI tools to assist with content. Elements of this article were created with help from OpenAI's GPT4.

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