Data centers in Lea County, New Mexico: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Lea County, in New Mexico's oil patch, has its first giant data center proposal and wrote rules before it arrives. In November 2025, Midland-based New Era Energy & Digital, formerly New Era Helium, signed an option on about 3,500 acres near Caprock for an AI campus it says could reach 7,000 megawatts of power, with more than 2,000 megawatts of its own gas-fired generation and a planned nuclear plant of 5,000 megawatts or more, the technology still unchosen. It starts at 250 megawatts and targets power in 2028. An option gives the company the right, not the obligation, to buy the land.

On February 26, 2026 the County Commission unanimously approved the first of what County Manager Corey Needham said could be eight or 10 data center regulations. They require closed-loop or similar cooling so drinking water is not used up; require data centers either to build their own behind-the-meter power or to negotiate with utilities so existing customers' rates do not rise; and require any industrial revenue bond or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal to benefit every school and hospital district in the county. "We were talking to people that already have data centers and hearing the things they wish they would have established prior to them coming in," Needham said. "The big things were regulations on water use and impacts to the power grid."

Both are tight. Usable water is scarce, and a state bill that would have forced faster rules on reusing the oilfield's produced water, 98 percent of which comes from Lea and Eddy counties, died in a House committee in February. Xcel Energy says it is some 7,500 megawatts short of regional demand, a gap that could reach 20,000 megawatts in 10 years.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.