Oracle said on September 8, 2026 that it is seeking 2 gigawatts of solar, wind and geothermal power projects in New Mexico, aiming to bring them online between 2027 and 2031 to support Project Jupiter, the massive data center it is building in the state for OpenAI.
The company also pledged that Project Jupiter would reach 100% carbon-free energy matching by 2031. But the new renewable plants will not directly power the data center itself. Its main energy source will remain fuel cells made by Bloom Energy that run on natural gas.
Fuel Cells Replace Planned Gas Plants
Oracle and OpenAI had originally planned to supply Project Jupiter with 2.2 gigawatts of gas-fired power generation. The companies later changed the plan to 2.45 gigawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cells instead. Oracle said the switch should cut nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 90% and reduce other air pollution. Natural gas remains the site's only fuel source for now because of its availability in the region. Bloom Energy, a California-based company, makes fuel cells that generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction rather than combustion, a process it markets as cleaner than conventional gas turbines.
Oracle also pledged $1 million toward research into capturing and storing carbon dioxide, including the possibility of putting the captured gas to further use.
Protests and Legal Challenges Over Project Jupiter
Project Jupiter is the largest single facility within Stargate, a $165 billion data center program built to expand computing capacity for OpenAI's artificial intelligence systems. Oracle is a major cloud computing and database software company that is working with OpenAI on the project. It has drawn environmental protests and lawsuits from local residents concerned about its impact on air, water and land in New Mexico.
In response, Oracle said it would launch a public dashboard tracking air quality, noise, heat, light and water use around the site, and would commission an independent audit of those measurements. The company said construction is 26% complete. New Mexico's Supreme Court had previously suspended the process for issuing the project's air quality permit, but Oracle said the construction timeline has not been affected.
