Xai face lawsuits to run more than 400 megawatts of gas turbine without permits

The Xai -run Colossus Data Center outside the Memphis faces a lawsuit to run a fleet of natural gas turbines without permits.

“Over the past year, Xai has installed and operated at least 35 combustion turbines and other air pollutions at Colossus without obtaining the necessary pre -construction or necessary air permits,” SELC Center (SELC) wrote in a letter to Xai.

Legal group I presented the message On behalf of NAACP. It is a notice of the intention to prosecute Xai due to the violations of the clean air law. The law requires institutions to file such a message 60 days before a lawsuit is filed.

Gas turbines have the ability to emission more than 2000 tons of no_x In the year, a group of chemicals that contribute to smoky fog.

Selc notes that Memphis “had some of the worst air quality in the area.” “In 2024, Memphis was considered the capital of the nation by the American asthma and allergies due to the high rates of emergency room visits and mortality from asthma.”

Selc claims that xi Failure to obtain permits It is required by both federal and local organizers before installing generators. It also claims that the company was not running it with appropriate air pollution controls. At one point, Xai had enough turbines to generate 421 megawatts of electricity.

Last summer, the Ministry of Health in the Shilbe County, which supervises the compliance of local air pollution, told the Ministry of Health that XAI turbines were exempt from allowing, although the SCHD still publicly did not publicly reveal what Xai was doing on its site and the legal basis for any such exemption, “Selc said.

To determine what was happening on Colossus, Selc pushed an air photographer Take pictures From the facility in March. The photos revealed that Xai installed 35 turbines around the database at the time. Selc said that about a month later showed that at least 33 of them were working.

After taking these pictures, the Grand Memphis room, a local economic development agency, said that Xai has removed some turbines.

“Temporary natural gas turbines that were used to operate the first stage of graphics processing units before the network connection are now removed from the disposal and will be removed from the site over the next two months,” Memphis Room He said. The Foundation added: “It will remain about half of the operational turbines” until a second sub -station will complete the network center connection, and as soon as the sub -station is completed, the turbines will work as a backup.

But a June 15 trip showed that at least 26 turbines remained, including three new fasteners since the April trip. The total generation capacity was about 407 megawatts, only 14 megawatts of the previous amount.

“With very few exceptions – none of them apply here – new sources of standards and other air pollutants in Tennessee must obtain prior approval in the form of an air permit in addition to a permit to work and remove pollutants.”