Fermi America in partnership with the Texas Tech University System, has taken delivery of a consignment of six Siemens SGT-800 natural gas turbines and their accompanying generators for Project Matador – marking a major milestone in the natural gas power delivery schedule for the private energy campus.
Transporting these units, which in fully assembled form can weigh up to 350 tons, has been a major operation. The equipment arrived at the Port of Houston on seven vessels coming from four different countries, while transport to site will require over 400 specialised container chassis semi-truck loads. Moving the power components required the use of a 160+ ton crane and more than 36 oversized/heavy lifts.
The six GTs will form the natural gas component of Fermi America’s 11 GW private energy campus which is to be delivered with maximum operational flexibility and a reduced carbon footprint. The SGT-800 is rated at between 45 and 57 GW depending on the exact specification.
As AI and advanced computing rapidly expand across the United States, power provision is becoming unavoidable and critical. The grid cannot deliver enough reliable electricity at the scale and speed the market demands. Project Matador is being built to solve that problem with a diversified, on-site generation platform combining clean natural gas, new nuclear, battery energy storage, and solar into one private grid. Located in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, the campus is designed to deliver huge-scale, always-on power for the next generation of AI compute.
These gas units are a critical part of Fermi’s power timeline. Once operational, the generators will make up roughly one-third of the first gigawatt of power Fermi America will supply.
