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Texas data centres could erase decades of air quality gains, HARC report finds
See how this story connectsThe Houston Advanced Research Center published on 20 October 2026 an assessment of how four power supply scenarios for new Texas data centres would change five pollutants over the next five years, under three projections of demand. If all new data centre demand were met by the projected grid mix, NOx emissions from the power and industrial sectors in 2031 would be 136 percent higher and approach their 2004 volume, VOCs would exceed their 2002 volume by 32 percent and fine particles would return to their 2006 volume. NOx from data centre power generation could be 2 to 10 times higher if all new demand were met by onsite combustion instead of grid supply paired with solar and wind, and even the cleanest supply raises emissions above the no-data-centre baseline. Texas has 26 gigawatts of existing and under-construction data centre capacity, and a Wood Mackenzie report of March 2026 says it has four times more proposed capacity planned to run on onsite power than any other state.
Why it matters
HARC’s scenarios turn on how the demand is met: onsite gas engines give the highest emissions, and grid power paired with onsite solar and wind the lowest.
- When
- 20 Oct 2026
- ID
WTA-N-2026-0377- Where
- Texas
- Who
- Houston Advanced Research Center, Wood Mackenzie; John Hall
Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Houston Advanced Research Center and the reporting credited above. Checked against the source on 23 Oct 2026.
Source copy: download the page as saved on 23 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.
Cite this story
WTA-N-2026-0377: “Texas data centres could erase decades of air quality gains, HARC report finds.” wheresthe.ai, 20 Oct 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-tx-texas-data-centres-could-erase-decades-of-air-quality-2026-10/ (source: Houston Advanced Research Center).
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