Home/United States/Texas/Austin County
Data centers in Austin County, Texas: 1 project mapped
On the evening of August 14, 2026, dozens of Austin County residents met near Trenckmann Road and FM 949 and drove in tractors, trailers and trucks to Millheim Harmonie Verein Hall, where CleanSpark was holding an open house on the data center it wants to build about three miles outside Sealy. "We are not going to lay down and take it. We are here to fight," said resident Lisa Hicks. The Sealy News counted about 250 people at the event. CleanSpark, a bitcoin miner moving into AI and high-performance computing, acquired the 271-acre site in October 2025 with long-term power agreements for up to 285 megawatts. The company says only about 10 acres would hold the facility itself, in an enclosed building cooled by a closed-loop liquid system of water and propylene glycol that would use less than ten homes' worth of water a day, and that it will build its own substation and pay the utility for upgrades. "It sounds like a lot of power, but ultimately, the way that we work with the grid is that we pay our own way," said chief business officer Harry Sudocks.
The site sits on Substation Road beside an existing battery energy storage system that neighbors already live with. At a commissioners court hearing, residents near it described a mechanical sound some compared to a shop vacuum; one landowner said she measured about 61 decibels on her property, and others described a low-frequency hum audible more than a mile away. CleanSpark says the battery site is a separate project with a different owner that predates its purchase. Residents also raised water, electrical demand, construction traffic, wildlife and migratory birds, property values, light and the cumulative effect of several industrial projects in a rural county close to Houston. Not every speaker opposed it: a local real estate agent argued for guardrails rather than a pause, and one neighbor on Substation Road said the company had answered her questions in writing and seemed willing to negotiate over noise. CleanSpark cites a Deloitte analysis it commissioned projecting more than $214 million in property tax for the county and Sealy ISD over ten years and more than 100 permanent jobs; Austin County News Online noted those figures had not been independently confirmed.
Read more
On July 27 commissioners unanimously adopted a countywide moratorium on new AI data centers and battery storage. It directs county officers, including the fire marshal, not to approve permits until the county completes a health and safety review, requires developers to file an equipment manufacturer audit and swear that no components come from prohibited foreign-adversary suppliers, orders a study of where an energy development zone could go, and lets county counsel seek injunctions against violations. County Judge Tim Lapham said the question was not whether CleanSpark is a responsible operator but how the county can set standards for every company that follows, and that the moratorium is one of the few tools it has. KWHI reported Austin County was only the second Texas county to try this; Hill County adopted a moratorium in May and dropped it after a data center developer sued for more than $100 million.
Whether the moratorium stops CleanSpark is not settled. The company's representatives said the substation had always been meant to serve a data center and had been discussed with local officials; county officials said an earlier request for drainage and substation work was never clearly tied to a data center, that approving the substation did not grandfather one, and that no complete development permit application for the data center had been filed. Above both sits the state: Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT in August to audit every data center connecting to the Texas grid, and CleanSpark, which Abbott named among companies agreeing to comply with his standards, says it needs certainty about power before breaking ground and would then need 16 to 18 months to build. When the county's review will finish, where an energy zone might go, and who CleanSpark's computing customer would be have not been made public.
Data center projects on record in Austin County
Grouped by the town each site sits in. The report above may name projects that have no record here yet.
Austin County1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CleanSpark Sealy Data CenterAustin CountyExact site not confirmed | CleanSpark | Proposed | 285 MW |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
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.