Oracle tries to appease Stargate data center opponents with renewables push
Oracle tries to appease Stargate data center opponents with renewables push
甲骨文试图通过推动可再生能源项目来安抚“星际之门”数据中心的反对者
Oracle’s proposed investment in 2 gigawatts of renewable energy projects for New Mexico comes as local opposition could delay development of the Project Jupiter data center that Oracle is building for OpenAI. 甲骨文公司提议在新墨西哥州投资 2 吉瓦的可再生能源项目，此举正值当地的反对声音可能延误其为 OpenAI 建设的“木星项目”（Project Jupiter）数据中心之际。
The two tech companies are developing the $165 billion Project Jupiter data center in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as part of the broader Stargate AI infrastructure project announced by President Donald Trump in 2025. But Project Jupiter faces local protests and court battles over concerns about its environmental impacts—and the latest Oracle announcement on September 8 seeking proposals for renewable energy projects does not change the fact that the data center will be powered by fuel cells that consume natural gas. 这两家科技公司正在新墨西哥州圣特雷莎（Santa Teresa）开发耗资 1650 亿美元的“木星项目”数据中心，这是唐纳德·特朗普总统于 2025 年宣布的更广泛的“星际之门”（Stargate）人工智能基础设施项目的一部分。然而，“木星项目”因环境影响担忧而面临当地的抗议和法律诉讼。甲骨文于 9 月 8 日发布的寻求可再生能源项目提案的最新公告，并未改变该数据中心将由消耗天然气的燃料电池供电这一事实。
“Like all matching programs, this would be synthetic in the sense that 2 GW of renewables wouldn’t directly power the data center,” wrote Michael Thomas, CEO of the Cleanview data platform that tracks renewable energy and data center projects, in a LinkedIn post. Oracle and OpenAI had originally planned to build 2.2 gigawatts of natural gas generation that could have resulted in 14 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, Thomas pointed out. That would have effectively “wiped out 20 years of carbon emissions reductions in the state of New Mexico,” he wrote in his post. “像所有匹配计划一样，这在某种意义上是合成的，因为 2 吉瓦的可再生能源并不会直接为数据中心供电，”追踪可再生能源和数据中心项目的 Cleanview 数据平台首席执行官迈克尔·托马斯（Michael Thomas）在领英（LinkedIn）的一篇帖子中写道。托马斯指出，甲骨文和 OpenAI 最初计划建设 2.2 吉瓦的天然气发电设施，这每年可能导致 1400 万吨的二氧化碳排放。他在帖子中写道，这实际上将“抵消新墨西哥州 20 年来的碳减排成果”。
State residents and environmental groups have rallied in opposition to Project Jupiter with protests and lawsuits. New Mexico’s Land Office twice blocked requests to run a natural gas pipeline to the data center in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County. Such opposition likely prompted the tech companies’ Project Jupiter plan to pivot from gas turbines to fuel-cell technology, which produces electricity through an electrochemical process without combustion. 当地居民和环保组织通过抗议和诉讼联合起来反对“木星项目”。新墨西哥州土地办公室曾两次拒绝了为该州唐娜安娜县（Doña Ana County）的数据中心铺设天然气管道的请求。这种反对声音很可能促使这两家科技公司将“木星项目”的计划从燃气轮机转向燃料电池技术，后者通过电化学过程发电，无需燃烧。
The natural gas sticking point
天然气的症结所在
Compared to the original plan for gas turbines, the deployment of 2.45 gigawatts of fuel cells could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 90 percent and “substantially” reduce the amount of other air pollutants, like carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, according to Julia Robin, VP of networking and data capacity management at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, in a commentary published in the Santa Fe New Mexican. 据甲骨文云基础设施网络与数据容量管理副总裁朱莉娅·罗宾（Julia Robin）在《圣达菲新墨西哥人报》发表的评论文章称，与最初的燃气轮机计划相比，部署 2.45 吉瓦的燃料电池可将氮氧化物排放量减少 90% 以上，并能“大幅”减少一氧化碳和二氧化硫等其他空气污染物的排放。
The Bloom Energy fuel cell technology also has the flexibility to operate on cleaner fuels like hydrogen or biogas, along with being more compatible with carbon-capture systems. Robin suggested that this technology could “give Project Jupiter a more flexible path as lower-carbon fuels and carbon-capture infrastructure develop.” Bloom Energy 的燃料电池技术还具有灵活性，可以使用氢气或沼气等更清洁的燃料运行，并且与碳捕集系统的兼容性更好。罗宾表示，随着低碳燃料和碳捕集基础设施的发展，这项技术可以“为‘木星项目’提供一条更灵活的路径”。
Oracle’s renewables announcement was also accompanied by a $1 million pledge to fund research on carbon capture and sequestration, with a focus on storing and potentially harnessing the carbon dioxide produced by the Bloom Energy fuel cells. But for now, fuel cells powering Project Jupiter will still use natural gas because it is “available and reliable, especially in this region of the country,” Robin wrote. 甲骨文的可再生能源公告还附带了一项 100 万美元的承诺，用于资助碳捕集与封存研究，重点是储存并可能利用 Bloom Energy 燃料电池产生的二氧化碳。但罗宾写道，目前为“木星项目”供电的燃料电池仍将使用天然气，因为天然气“在全国该地区尤其易于获取且可靠”。
The Project Jupiter switch from gas turbines to fuel cells would significantly reduce local air pollution and emissions. Yet the continued reliance on natural gas means that “even with the new plan, the data center could be the largest source of emissions in the state,” Thomas at Cleanview pointed out. “木星项目”从燃气轮机转向燃料电池将显著减少当地的空气污染和排放。然而，Cleanview 的托马斯指出，对天然气的持续依赖意味着“即使有了新计划，该数据中心仍可能是该州最大的排放源”。
Oracle’s new effort to invest in 2 gigawatts of new renewable energy projects could benefit New Mexico. But the Project Jupiter commitment to achieving “100 percent carbon-free energy matching by 2031” does not directly mitigate the data center’s emissions from the fuel cells using natural gas. “The Bloom fuel cells would be the primary power source, and Oracle would claim the environmental attributes of the new renewable projects located somewhere else in the state,” Thomas wrote. 甲骨文投资 2 吉瓦新可再生能源项目的新举措可能会使新墨西哥州受益。但“木星项目”承诺在 2031 年前实现“100% 无碳能源匹配”，并不能直接减轻数据中心因使用天然气燃料电池而产生的排放。托马斯写道：“Bloom 燃料电池将是主要动力来源，而甲骨文将声称拥有位于该州其他地方的新可再生能源项目的环境属性。”
Pressing forward with PR
推进公关工作
Project Jupiter continues to face potential delays in development. On August 23, the New Mexico Supreme Court paused the air quality permitting process for the data center while overseeing two separate legal challenges from environmental groups. But Oracle is still trying to win over the opposition in New Mexico. Its flurry of Project Jupiter announcements on September 8 included the promise to set up a public dashboard for community members to view data related to the data center’s air, noise, heat, light, and water. The company also promised to “commission independent third-party assessments of this information and make reports available to the public.” “木星项目”在开发过程中仍面临潜在的延误。8 月 23 日，新墨西哥州最高法院在审理环保组织提出的两项独立法律挑战期间，暂停了该数据中心的空气质量许可程序。但甲骨文仍在努力争取新墨西哥州反对者的支持。其在 9 月 8 日发布的一系列关于“木星项目”的公告中，承诺建立一个公共仪表板，供社区成员查看与数据中心的空气、噪音、热量、光照和水资源相关的数据。该公司还承诺“委托独立的第三方对这些信息进行评估，并将报告向公众公开”。
Work on the data center project has continued despite the state Supreme Court order and has reached 26 percent completion, an Oracle executive told Doña Ana County commissioners in a meeting reported by Searchlight New Mexico on September 8. It’s just the latest example of many data centers facing potential delays and legal challenges amid growing bipartisan opposition across the United States. 据《新墨西哥探照灯报》（Searchlight New Mexico）9 月 8 日报道，在一次会议上，一位甲骨文高管告诉唐娜安娜县专员，尽管有州最高法院的命令，数据中心项目的施工仍在继续，目前已完成 26%。这只是美国各地两党反对声音日益高涨的情况下，众多面临潜在延误和法律挑战的数据中心案例中的最新一个。
But Oracle is under special pressure to get its AI data centers up and running because the company has taken on $125 billion in debt to finance its data center building spree—the result of Oracle having less cash on hand than its Big Tech competitors. During a quarterly earnings briefing with analysts and reporters on September 10, Hilary Maxon, chief financial officer at Oracle, denied that Project Jupiter is facing any delays in its construction schedule in New Mexico. “We’re making very good progress,” Maxon said. “In terms of construction, [the] data center is definitely on track.” 但甲骨文在启动其人工智能数据中心方面承受着特殊压力，因为该公司背负了 1250 亿美元的债务来为其数据中心建设热潮提供资金——这是甲骨文手头现金少于其大型科技竞争对手的结果。在 9 月 10 日与分析师和记者的季度财报电话会议上，甲骨文首席财务官希拉里·马克森（Hilary Maxon）否认“木星项目”在新墨西哥州的施工进度面临任何延误。马克森说：“我们进展非常顺利。在施工方面，数据中心绝对在按计划进行。”