Why Willacy County’s first $50M data center project will be powered by wind

On a lonely stretch of highway in Willacy County, hundreds of wind turbines move in the breeze as crops are still growing on the farmland below. 

The rural Rio Grande Valley county’s newest industry is data centers, leveraging all that wind power, which often produces more electricity than the grid demands. 

“I guess we’re blessed to have these windmills because that’s what allowed this to happen,” Willacy County Judge Auerlio “Keter” Guerra said in an interview with the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. “I’ve driven out there several times, and the construction is on its way; there’s a lot of heavy equipment out there, and so we’re looking forward to having that project completed.” 

Out there, in a remote southeast corner of the community, just north of County Line Road and east of Farm-to-Market Road 1420, the first data center is under construction.