Google and Intersect today announced construction of the Meitner Energy Center in Gray and Roberts Counties, Texas - a project that pairs a new data center directly with more than a gigawatt of wind, solar, and battery storage, in what is the second joint site the two companies have disclosed since their partnership began.

The announcement, dated June 4, 2026, follows Google's completion of its acquisition of Intersect in March 2026, and places a new facility in the Texas Panhandle region well north of the company's existing data center campuses in Ellis County. The project name references Lise Meitner, the Austrian-Swedish physicist whose work on nuclear fission reshaped 20th-century science - a naming convention consistent with Google's broader practice of honoring scientists at its infrastructure sites.

What the Meitner Energy Center actually is

At its core, the Meitner Energy Center is a co-location project: a data center and its power generation built alongside each other on the same site, rather than the data center drawing power from the regional grid after the fact. According to Google, the Gray and Roberts Counties site includes "a data center co-located with more than a gigawatt of wind, solar, and battery storage systems."

The term "more than a gigawatt" is significant. One gigawatt of generation capacity is roughly equivalent to the output of a large gas-fired power plant or two utility-scale nuclear reactors. Deploying that quantity through a combination of wind, solar, and battery storage - tied specifically to a single data center complex - represents a substantial departure from how hyperscalers have historically procured electricity. The conventional model involves power purchase agreements with distant generators, with energy transmitted across regional grids. Here, the generation infrastructure sits on the same physical footprint as the computing load.

According to the announcement, the majority of the site's power will come from clean energy from the first day of operations. A minority share of demand will be met by on-site natural gas, described as "firming" capacity to maintain reliable operations when renewables are intermittent. The gas component is not the primary supply; it functions as backup and smoothing infrastructure for the clean energy systems.

Air cooling and the water question

One of the more technically specific details in the announcement is the choice of air cooling for the Gray County facility. According to Google, once complete, the facility "will use advanced air-cooling technology, limiting water consumption to small-scale domestic uses like restrooms."

That constraint matters in a region where water is scarce. The Texas Panhandle sits above the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest underground freshwater systems in the world, but one under sustained pressure from agricultural withdrawal. Data centers typically consume substantial quantities of water for cooling - some facilities use millions of gallons per day - so designing a large facility to avoid that consumption is a meaningful technical and political choice in this geography.

The air-cooling approach contrasts with liquid cooling architectures increasingly common in high-density AI compute deployments. Liquid cooling - whether direct-to-chip or immersion-based - generally achieves better thermal efficiency for dense GPU clusters. Air cooling at scale tends to require larger physical footprints and can impose constraints on how tightly servers are packed. Google has not disclosed what compute workloads the Meitner facility will primarily serve, but the air-cooled design suggests it may not be optimized for the highest-density AI training configurations, or that Google has made a deliberate trade-off toward community and environmental acceptability in this specific location.

Beyond the facility itself, Google has separately announced a $10 million Texas Water Impact Fund to support community water infrastructure through local projects including leaking pipeline replacements. The fund complements existing collaborations with Texan by Nature and Texas Water Trade, two organizations focused on watershed health across the state.

The Caprock Workforce Hub

Construction logistics for a project of this scale require significant labor concentration. According to Google, it is establishing the Caprock Workforce Hub in nearby Wheeler County - a managed, 800-acre residential facility designed to accommodate up to 3,500 construction workers.

The hub is described as self-sufficient in utilities and served by dedicated transportation, designed to minimize traffic and pressure on local infrastructure during the construction phase. Onsite amenities will include a basketball court, a fitness center, and social spaces. Google says it is working closely with Wheeler County leadership on the hub's design and integration.

The workforce calculation extends beyond construction. According to Google, for every one job inside a Google data center in the United States, nine additional jobs are created in the local community - in maintenance, security, landscaping, HVAC repair, electrical work, and construction trades. That multiplier claim, if applied to the Meitner facility, would imply substantial indirect employment in Gray, Roberts, and surrounding counties over the facility's operational lifetime.

Intersect has been present in the region since 2022. According to the announcement, the company has invested in Pampa Independent School District's Career and Technical Education program, The Well STEAM and Literacy Center, and the Texas 4-H Foundation.

Local response

Two local officials are quoted in the joint announcement. Gray County Judge Chris Porter said: "Our partnership with Google and Intersect has been instrumental in aligning this infrastructure initiative with our Gray County priorities. This investment is a foundation for regional progress, a connection to innovation, and demonstrates confidence in the long-term success of our community."

Cortnie Hale, President and CEO of the Pampa Chamber of Commerce, said: "The Pampa Chamber of Commerce is excited to welcome Google. Their involvement in the Meitner data center project represents a tremendous opportunity for our community and reinforces that Pampa is a place where innovation, growth, and long-term potential are being recognized on a global scale. We look forward to supporting this project and the positive impact it can bring to our businesses, workforce, and the future of Pampa."

Andrew Hart, Regional Head of Data Center Public Affairs at Google, said: "Our newest investment in Gray County deepens our partnership with Texas - a state that continues to lead with innovation and vision. We are excited to become a part of the community. More than just building a data center, our goal is to be a good neighbor, which starts on day one by investing in local priorities, protecting water and energy resources, and working with residents to build a strong future together."

Elizabeth Knowles, Head of Community Engagement at Intersect, said: "We are deeply invested in the long-term success of the Gray and Roberts County communities and are proud to support local schools, nonprofits, and the next generation of leaders through continued partnerships that meet the community's evolving needs."

The second joint site, and what came before it

The Meitner Energy Center is the second co-located project that Google and Intersect have announced together. The first was disclosed in November 2025 in Haskell County, Texas, where Intersect's Quantum Clean Energy Project - a 640 MW solar and 1.3 GWh storage facility - will be co-located with a Google data center. According to the June 4 announcement, the Quantum facility will begin operations this month, while the Haskell County Google data center recently began construction.

PPC Land reported in December 2025 on the broader context of Google's acquisition of Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash, a deal that closed in March 2026. That acquisition gave Google ownership of multiple gigawatts of energy and data center projects in development or under construction across the United States. The deal also included Intersect's portfolio relationship with Tesla Megapacks - the company had secured 17.7 gigawatt-hours of Megapack battery storage - and a multi-billion-dollar partnership with First Solar for American-made solar technology.

Intersect, according to its own materials, has $15 billion of assets in operation or under construction across U.S. states. The company's model, which Google has now adopted at scale, involves co-locating industrial electricity demand with dedicated gas and renewable power generation on the same site - bypassing the grid interconnection queues that have slowed data center development elsewhere.

Texas: the scale of Google's footprint

Google has been present in Texas for more than 15 years. The company operates offices in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and has existing data center campuses in Midlothian and Red Oak in Ellis County. New data centers are under construction in Armstrong, Haskell, and Wilbarger Counties, and now in Gray and Roberts Counties.

In November 2025, Google announced a $40 billion investment in Texas through 2027. According to Google, in 2025 the company helped provide $55.7 billion of economic activity for hundreds of thousands of Texas businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators, and developers.

The Texas Energy Impact Fund, separately established by Google, supports programs focused on energy affordability, home and public school weatherization upgrades, and energy workforce development.

The "power first" model and its implications for the grid

The Meitner Energy Center announcement uses the phrase "power first" to describe the approach. The logic is straightforward: instead of building a data center and then negotiating for grid access, Google and Intersect build the generation capacity first - or simultaneously - so that the data center arrives on the grid with its own dedicated supply rather than drawing on capacity that existing customers depend on.

The distinction matters politically as much as technically. Communities and regulators across the United States have raised concerns about large data centers increasing electricity costs for residential and small commercial customers by adding load without adding generation. The co-location model is a direct response to that concern. According to Google, it is committed to responsible growth and pays for 100% of the power it uses. Google and Intersect state that they share an ongoing commitment to ensure the buildout of energy and data center infrastructure does not pass the costs of infrastructure growth onto local families.

Whether the "power first" commitment fully insulates local ratepayers from indirect cost effects - through grid upgrades, transmission investment, or ancillary services - is a question that regulators and public utility commissions would need to evaluate independently. The gas firming component, a minority share of demand, also introduces a fossil fuel element into what is otherwise presented as a clean energy project.

Context for the marketing and ad tech community

For the advertising and marketing professionals who make up PPC Land's core readership, data center announcements may seem distant from campaign management, measurement, and platform strategy. The connection is more direct than it appears.

Every AI-powered advertising tool that Google has deployed in recent years - Performance Max, demand forecasting in Google Ads, AI Overviews in Search, the Gemini models underlying generative ad creation - runs on physical infrastructure that requires both computing capacity and reliable power. The constraint on AI advertising product development is not primarily algorithmic; it is physical. Chips, power, cooling, and land are the binding limits.

PPC Land has documented extensively how Google's acquisition of Intersect in December 2025 was understood within the company as a direct response to the electricity bottleneck facing AI infrastructure deployment. The Meitner Energy Center is a downstream consequence of that acquisition - the first fully new co-located project announced after the deal closed.

As PPC Land reported on the Indianapolis situation in October 2025, community opposition to data centers - driven by concerns about water use, electricity costs, and land - has become a material constraint on hyperscaler expansion in some markets. The Meitner announcement's explicit focus on air cooling, a dedicated $10 million water fund, and a co-located power supply appears designed in part to preempt those objections in a region where water and energy concerns are acute.

Google's groundbreaking on its first owned data center in Sweden on June 2, 2026, two days before the Meitner announcement, illustrates the scale of the company's global infrastructure push. The company is simultaneously advancing construction on multiple continents, in markets ranging from the Texas Panhandle to Dalarna County, Sweden.

Timeline

  • 2022 - Intersect becomes an active community member in Gray and Roberts Counties, Texas, partnering with local leaders on education and youth development programs
  • November 2025 - Google and Intersect announce their first joint site in Haskell County, Texas, featuring the Quantum Clean Energy Project: 640 MW solar and 1.3 GWh storage co-located with a Google data center
  • November 14, 2025 - Google announces $40 billion investment in Texas through 2027, including new data centers in Armstrong and Haskell Counties
  • December 22, 2025 - Alphabet announces definitive agreement to acquire Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash - PPC Land coverage
  • March 2026 - Google closes its acquisition of Intersect
  • June 2026 - Intersect's Quantum Clean Energy Project in Haskell County begins operations; the associated Google data center recently began construction
  • June 2, 2026 - Google breaks ground on its first self-developed, owned, and operated data center in Horndal, Sweden - PPC Land coverage
  • June 4, 2026 - Google and Intersect announce construction of the Meitner Energy Center in Gray and Roberts Counties, Texas, including a data center co-located with more than 1 GW of wind, solar, and battery storage; Google establishes the Caprock Workforce Hub for up to 3,500 construction workers in Wheeler County

Summary

Who: Google and Intersect, with Intersect now a Google-owned subsidiary following the March 2026 acquisition closing. Local stakeholders include Gray County Judge Chris Porter and the Pampa Chamber of Commerce.

What: Construction of the Meitner Energy Center - a data center co-located with more than 1 GW of wind, solar, and battery storage in Gray and Roberts Counties, Texas. The facility uses air-cooling technology to limit water consumption to restroom-level domestic use. Google is simultaneously establishing the Caprock Workforce Hub, an 800-acre residential facility for up to 3,500 construction workers in Wheeler County. Google has also announced a $10 million Texas Water Impact Fund.

When: Announced June 4, 2026. No construction completion date has been disclosed. The Quantum Clean Energy Project at the first Google-Intersect joint site in Haskell County begins operations in June 2026.

Where: Gray and Roberts Counties, Texas, in the Texas Panhandle. The Caprock Workforce Hub will be located in Wheeler County, adjacent to the primary site counties.

Why: The project is the second joint co-located data center and energy generation site announced by Google and Intersect since their partnership deepened through Google's $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect in late 2025. It reflects the "power first" approach - bringing generation capacity online alongside data center load rather than drawing on the existing local grid - in a region where water scarcity and grid capacity are significant constraints. The project is part of Google's stated $40 billion Texas investment commitment through 2027.