Texas Critical Data Centers, Ector County, Texas

New Era Energy & Digital has signed a 20-year deal with Vistra's subsidiary Luminant for at least 207 megawatts of power to run the first phase of its Texas Critical Data Centers campus in Ector County, Texas. The data center campus is planned near Penwell in west Ector County, outside Odessa, next to Vistra's 1.1-gigawatt natural gas plant that will supply it, with power expected to start flowing in the third quarter of 2027.

The project began as a joint venture between New Era Helium and the GPU cloud firm Sharon AI, first planned at 90 megawatts of power and then expanded to 250 megawatts with the potential to grow beyond 1 gigawatt. The partners bought 235 acres from GROW Odessa, an economic development corporation, in July 2025, and New Era, formerly New Era Helium, later bought out Sharon AI's stake for $70 million and closed on another 203 acres, taking the campus to 438 acres.

In April 2026 it signed a non-binding letter of intent to form a joint venture with Stream Data Centers to develop and finance the campus, with equity from an unnamed institutional investor, and site plans suggest up to ten two-story buildings. No tenant has been announced; New Era's chief executive, Charlie Nelson, said the power contract made the site "an attractive opportunity to any quality tenant currently in the market," and said the company has construction permits in hand.

Vistra gets a five percent non-voting interest in the data center once power starts flowing, and has also signed non-binding agreements for about 250 megawatts of on-site gas generation. In January 2026, Rosen Law Firm said it was investigating securities claims against New Era Energy & Digital over allegedly misleading business information, and the company's share price fell 6.9 percent.

Opposition has reached the Ector County Commissioners Court. In June 2026, residents urged commissioners to be cautious about data centers, citing greenhouse gas emissions, strain on emergency services, noise and water use. County Judge Dustin Fawcett said the county was having its first formal meeting with a data center company. "We care about the environment and we will be asking all those questions," Fawcett said.

At an August meeting, resident JoAnna Keese told the court it was being secretive and that land in the county was already cleared for a data center, and another speaker told commissioners not "to sell out and bow down you are elected to protect us." Commissioner Mike Gardner said he is not for tax abatements to lure data centers, but agreed with Fawcett that the county has no authority to tell landowners what to do with their property.

The county has no ordinance-making authority, Fawcett said, but he told residents public meetings would be held before the county makes any agreement with a data center. Tom Manskey, director of economic development at the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, said in 2025 that three other data centers had expressed interest in the area.