Work on some Texas data centers slowed after Gov. Greg Abbott called for a pause on air permits for the massive computing facilities. However, one just outside of San Antonio appears to be moving ahead as planned.
CyrusOne’s SAT14A near Castroville, a 460,000-square-foot facility on U.S. Highway 90 in Medina County, has begun construction amid Abbott’s purported pause, according to a report by industry website Colocation Scout.
The Castroville facility is able to proceed as planned because Abbott’s pause only impacts the issuance of permits through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), not documents approving their construction.
“What the pause holds are the agency’s air and water permits for projects still waiting, including the air permits for backup generators,” said Cody Swift, founder of Colocation Scout. “It doesn’t touch construction registrations like CyrusOne’s.”
The structures being built are simply at a different part of the process, Swift added.
The Castroville-area facility registered with the state on July 16. This was the only data center project filed in the third quarter in or around San Antonio, according to Colocation Scout.
Like most of the data centers in Texas, CyrusOne’s facility is being built in an unincorporated area outside of any city’s jurisdiction. This means that even if San Antonio implements a moratorium — a prospect that has been raised by District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan — it won’t impact SAT14A and other sites outside the city’s boundaries.
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