Samsung plans floating 50 MW data center in Texas

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Samsung advances floating data center project with first Texas engineering agreement

Floating facilities promise 50MW capacity while reducing traditional construction timelines significantly

Texas grid review creates fresh uncertainty for expanding data center developments statewide

Samsung Heavy Industries and Dallas-based Mousterian Corporation have signed an engineering contract covering their first floating data center project planned for deployment in Texas.

The deal advances their partnership into the engineering phase, with both companies jointly responsible for the project's basic design, detailed engineering, and production planning.

Each proposed floating facility is expected to provide 50 MW of critical IT capacity while operating on water instead of occupying conventional land-based development sites.

A shipyard-built facility moored beside a power plant

The pilot site is expected to sit next to an existing combined-cycle gas turbine power plant located in Houston, according to reporting on the plan.

Mousterian believes the shipyard construction approach could shorten delivery schedules compared with conventional land-based developments.

"Because the facility is built in a shipyard, fabrication advances in parallel with sitework rather than after it, a schedule and scale that conventional delivery methods cannot match," said Min Suh, chief executive of Mousterian.

Samsung Heavy Industries brings five decades of offshore and maritime engineering experience into the venture, according to its chief executive.

"Together with Mousterian, we intend to deliver floating datacenters with the same rigor, quality, and schedule certainty that define our maritime track record," said Sung-an Choi, chief executive of Samsung Heavy Industries.

Mousterian says its cooling approach avoids drawing on potable water supplies entirely and sends no discharge back into surrounding waterways.

Removing air-cooled chillers and fans from the design is also expected to considerably cut down on noise pollution near the site.

The American Bureau of Shipping is expected to classify these waterborne facilities once formal engineering work moves further.

Grid access in Texas remains an open question

The proposed location beside an existing gas-fired power plant may not shield the project from broader regulatory challenges affecting new data center developments.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has paused approvals for new Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid connections while state authorities review pending applications.

ERCOT is reviewing requests covering more than 474 GW of proposed new connections, a figure Abbott says is over five times peak state demand.

Data centers alone account for roughly 90% of those pending connection requests currently sitting before regulators.

State regulators are now asking project developers whether they plan to generate their own power or depend fully on the shared grid.

Officials also want detailed water consumption estimates from each project before any new connection request receives approval going forward.

Any project that fails to meet these new disclosure requirements will simply be denied a grid connection outright.

Floating infrastructure could sidestep competition for scarce buildable land near major cities, while offering built-in access to water for cooling.

Whether Texas regulators treat water-borne facilities differently from land-based ones under the new audit rules remains unclear for now.

Via The Register