The applicant’s stated site-rated generation capacity is part of the public J0049 record.
Visual evidence · scale references
What 710 MW of gas-turbine generation could look like
Nobody has published a Pacifico site plan or rendering. These are the closest real-world references: comparable operating facilities, thermal footage, one developer rendering, and one clearly labeled AI-generated scale illustration.
What the application says
A modular plant, but no published picture
Pacifico describes a “modular microgrid configuration consisting of multiple simple-cycle combustion turbine generators supplemented by fast-start peaking turbines” delivering 710 MW. Standard aeroderivative unit sizes suggest an engineering range of roughly 15–25 turbines in the 30–50 MW class. That is a scale estimate—not a verified equipment count.
A range derived from the proposed capacity and common aeroderivative turbine ratings—not Pacifico’s filed inventory.
Those project-specific facts should appear in later air, engineering, and site-plan records.
Optical gas imaging
What turbine exhaust looks like through an infrared camera
Combustion exhaust is mostly invisible to the naked eye. Certified thermographer Sharon Wilson of Oilfield Witness recorded these three clips at xAI’s Memphis facility on May 13, 2025 with a Teledyne FLIR G620 camera designed for hydrocarbon gas imaging.
A second certified reviewer—a 28-year TCEQ veteran—described “huge lofting and significant emissions that extend far beyond the facility’s physical footprint … from at least 13–15 hot turbines.”
Independent review quoted by Oilfield Witness
Thermal drone investigation
What a full turbine yard looks like from above
Floodlight investigative producer and FAA-licensed drone pilot Evan Simon recorded this thermal view during the newsroom’s January 2026 investigation of xAI’s Southaven, Mississippi, power plant. The aerial perspective shows rows of hot stacks and their combined exhaust plumes serving one data-center complex.
Fair-comparison note
Visible plume behavior is not the same as measured pollution.
The Memphis units shown here were temporary and operated without the permitted SCR and CO oxidation-catalyst controls Pacifico says it will use. Those systems can substantially reduce—but do not eliminate—NOx and CO. OGI and thermal footage show the existence, heat, movement, and collective scale of exhaust; they do not quantify pollutant concentrations or predict exposure at Cedar Creek.
Read Floodlight’s drone-method accountScale
How big is 710 megawatts?
Brotman Generating Station is a 288 MW Texas simple-cycle peaker. Pacifico proposes about 2.5 times that generating capacity. At Brotman’s six-unit configuration, the same capacity ratio would imply roughly 15 units; lower-rated packages would require more.
Operating as primary on-site power for a data center.
A separate Virginia proposal reported by PEC.
A moving real-world reference for a large turbine fleet.
Brotman Generating Station288 MW · six LM6000 packages · Brazoria County, Texas
Real facilities
The same industrial vocabulary, photographed
The photographed operating plants use air permits and emissions controls; the Hubbard image is a developer rendering of a proposed campus. Most grid peakers run intermittently. A behind-the-meter plant following a large computing load may run far more often, as Vantage VA2 does. Pacifico’s operating profile remains unknown.
Brotman Generating Station — Brazoria County, Texas
The closest Texas visual analog in this set: a 288 MW simple-cycle peaker with six LM6000 gas-turbine packages, individual enclosures, emissions-control structures, and exhaust stacks the source reference estimates at roughly 60–80 feet. Pacifico proposes about 2.5 times its total generating capacity. The repeating equipment, piping, and service areas show how quickly a modular turbine yard becomes an industrial campus.
Photo: ProEnergyOpen source
Brotman Generating Station — close view
A closer view shows turbine enclosures, emissions-control and exhaust structures, fuel-gas equipment, water storage, and an on-site substation—many of the same equipment categories named in Pacifico’s filing.
Photo: ProEnergyOpen source
Vantage VA2 Data Center — Sterling, Virginia
An annotated satellite view of a hyperscale data center with eight natural-gas turbines and permitted diesel backup generators co-located on campus. It is a real, approximately 100 MW behind-the-meter configuration operating around the clock beside residential land use. Pacifico’s proposed generating capacity is roughly seven times larger.
Image: Piedmont Environmental CouncilOpen source
GE LM6000 units — Sand Hill Energy Center, Austin
A ground-level view of the aeroderivative turbine class suggested by Pacifico’s “simple-cycle” and “fast-start peaking” language, roughly 15 miles from Cedar Creek. Austin Energy’s station includes six LM6000 simple-cycle peaker units within a larger gas-generation site. Each package is shipping-container-scale with a tall exhaust stack; Pacifico’s exact manufacturer, model, stack height, and unit count remain unknown.
Photo: Community Impact / Austin EnergyOpen source
Elk Station — Abernathy, Texas, at human scale
A tour group beside a simple-cycle unit conveys physical scale better than an aerial photograph: the air-intake structure, turbine equipment, controls, and exhaust stack tower over the people below. This is a larger frame-type unit, not an assumed Pacifico model, but the basic industrial anatomy is comparable.
Photo: Golden Spread Electric CooperativeOpen source
Proposed 600 MW gas-powered data center — Hubbard, Texas
A developer rendering of a whole-campus concept close in scale to Pacifico’s 710 MW proposal. Data-center halls dominate the site while the gas-generation plant occupies one portion; cooling, roads, electrical equipment, and supporting infrastructure fill much of the remaining developed footprint.
Developer rendering via Data Center DynamicsOpen sourceAbout this visual record
References, not a substitute site plan
Pacifico’s application does not specify a turbine count, model, or layout. The 15–25 range follows from the application’s “modular,” “multiple,” and “fast-start” language and common aeroderivative unit sizes. The exact inventory should appear in the TCEQ air-permit record once filed.
Images are credited to their sources. Real facilities, source footage, developer renderings, and AI-generated illustrations are labeled separately so visual force does not become false certainty.