City Council Debates Big Data Center Project In McGregor

It looks as though Central Texas may soon have another data center.

McGregor City Council Considers Major Development Proposals

Industrial expansion and economic growth are taking center stage in McGregor as local officials evaluate two major development proposals. During a recent executive session, the McGregor City Council entered closed-door talks to deliberate the potential sale of city owned land.

Project Fidelity

According to Fox 44, the first initiative, dubbed Project Fidelity, centers on a huge land acquisition targeting the Ferguson site. The developer intends to purchase roughly 124 acres at the location that will be increased with future land purchases. 400,000 square feet of the on-site building is currently being used as a warehouse by Tractor Supply.

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Project Merlin

The second project under review by the City Council is dubbed Project Merlin, a venture spearheaded by Galaxy, a global player in data center infrastructure and digital assets.

Inside Project Merlin

Galaxy is looking for land. A lot of it. The company is buying close to 500 acres for development. Rather than building a huge data center common in other central Texas locations, Galaxy plans to build a complex of smaller, specialized facilities. The company intends to construct six to eight buildings, with an investment threshold starting at $400 million per facility.

The Water and Power Problem

Because data centers are notoriously water and power hogs, the proposal did not sit well with area residents. City officials moved quickly to address these specific points of friction.

Water Usage & Infrastructure

City officials say water consumption will be strictly capped at 3,000 gallons per day per unit, maxing out at 30,000 gallons daily. To prevent straining the municipal grid, Galaxy plans to build a million-gallon ground storage tank, filling it at a slow pace during the construction phase, so they are pre-charged with water.

Power Grid

The heavy electricity infrastructure required to run the data complex will be entirely funded by private capital, sparing local taxpayers from the burden of utility upgrades.

Noise Mitigation

Addressing public anxiety over the constant, low-frequency hum often associated with massive server farms, officials said the server noise would be fully contained and that the loudest elements of the complex would be the chillers used for the closed-loop cooling system.

The Helios Campus

The West Texas Helios Campus is Galaxy's flagship campus in Dickens County. It is one of the largest AI and HPC development sites in North America sitting on over 1,500 acres. According to the company's website, the site holds over 1.6 GW of power capacity.