CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Across the street from the Lyondell plant on McKenzie Road now sits the Bootstrap Energy Company's $400 million Saxet Energy Park.
"We are about to start construction on a facility that will use 300 MW of power and house up to 100,000 computers," said Bootstrap Energy Co-owner Matt Held.
Held showed 3NEWS the inside of the modified shipping containers with computer racks in place. One of the containers already had computers up and running. All are built and installed for either cryptocurrency or high-performance computer applications like AI.
"Officials with bootstrap energy say that this bitcoin mining operation should be fully operational by next summer," he said.
The 115-acre tract of old farmland will also be the site of a massive battery energy storage facility that the company will build to help our grid be supplied with power.
"The battery energy storage system tied to the grid. Will take advantage of abundance of peak energy. Primarily, wind energy in the evening and the overnight hours and the battery will remain in a high state of charge and able to deliver energy back to the system during periods of peak demand," he said.
City leaders approved the battery facility project at Tuesday's council meeting, and many members are excited about the project and the tax revenue it will generate.
"This is a good project for the environment because once again, it's renewable energy," said Corpus Christi Councilman Roland Barrera.
The battery energy storage site is expected to be up and running sometime in 2025.
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