[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] SpaceX said it will remove by July 2027 unpermitted gas turbines it is operating to supply power to an xAI data centre, and shift to a large permanent natural gas power plant. Disputes and lawsuits over alleged environmental regulatory violations tied to the existing turbines are expected to continue for now.

On July 31 local time, IT outlet TechCrunch reported that SpaceX said it is working to switch the power supply system for Colossus, an xAI data centre near Memphis, to a 1.2-gigawatt permanent natural gas power plant.

SpaceX currently uses 69 gas turbines to run the Colossus data centre. The turbines have already been operating for several months. The company plans to remove them in stages by July 2027 rather than halt the equipment immediately.

The issue is that the turbines have been operating without the required permits. The NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit, saying xAI is using gas turbines without permits. SpaceX took over the data centre project when it acquired xAI in February.

SpaceX says the existing turbines are not subject to permits because they sit on trailers installed for transport and are not separate fixed power generation facilities. Federal rules, however, view permits as required depending on generation scale and how the equipment is used, regardless of what structure it is installed on.

Environmental concerns are also contentious. The turbines are located in an area south of Memphis, Mississippi, near the Tennessee border. It is considered one of the areas in the United States where air pollution is severe.

It has been raised that the gas turbines operated by xAI could emit more than 2,000 tons a year of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx). Local environmental groups say residents are bearing the pollution burden to supply power for a large data centre.

The U.S. federal government, however, lent some support to SpaceX's argument. In the related lawsuit last month, the U.S. Department of Justice said the unpermitted turbine issue is not simply an environmental matter but one tied to national, economic and energy security.

The scale of the new power plant SpaceX is pursuing is also substantial. Mississippi permit documents show the plant will consist of 41 gas turbines ranging from 16.48 megawatts to 50 megawatts. They appear to be different equipment from the existing 69 turbines, but the specific models of the turbines currently in use have not been disclosed.

The investment is also large. SpaceX said in initial public offering-related documents that it plans to spend $2.8 billion over the next 3 years to buy gas turbines for data centres. It is an investment to shift data centre operations centred on temporary power equipment into long-term energy infrastructure.

Elon Musk acquired APR Energy, a company specialising in temporary natural gas power generation, early this year. The turbines held by APR Energy, however, are also known to be different from the new power plant equipment listed in the current permit documents. That has raised the possibility that the volume could be used for other data centre projects beyond Colossus.

The transition plan shows that securing power is emerging as a key challenge as AI data centres expand. SpaceX is moving to build large-scale power infrastructure for stable supply, but disputes over unpermitted turbine operations and local environmental issues are expected to continue until removal is completed in 2027.