The case
The interconnect approval queue decides who wins compute capacity — not GPUs. Undifferentiated 50 MW interconnect filings wait. You are not buying solar. You are buying an existing grid connection and filing a load the operator can say yes to. Texas (Pecos) is the worked example. The same two clocks exist on every grid: power out, and permission to pull power in after dark.
$150M/year on 50 MW. +$42M on 64 MW. +$54M on 82 MW. Recip 22 MW.
50 MW holds on the hottest design day. 54 MW is the modeled meter draw at PUE 1.08, not a site cap — versus 62.5 MW at PUE 1.25.
Use the generation permit you already have. Dirty cap 54 MW unchanged. Recip 22 MW.
The problem
Hundreds of gigawatts of large-load filings look the same to the grid operator: a new 50 MW hall, a new line, new water, new air permits. The filing that moves reuses a connection already in service, stays under that market’s large-load threshold, takes power the grid would otherwise spill, and can run islanded if overnight service is slow. Texas is the named example. The same two clocks exist on every wholesale market.
Three propositions
Do not underwrite them as one platform. Each stands alone. Heat to electricity first. Engines last — that is what keeps air, noise, and water small enough to permit.
01 · Investable
Forty to fifty acres of radiator tables on the fenceline you already have. Overlay $6.4–7.5M. $36–39M to close 50 MW of firm IT against $150M/year planning offtake. Dry coolers stay as fail-safe. A 10 MWdc plant against a named dry-cooler control is the first commercial step.
02 · Filing
TES is booked here. ORC 14 MWe on the same radiator loop. 64 MW of IT, +$42M/year. No dry cooler as the Phase 2 sink. Leftover acres take Phase 2 CSP — not a trough yard.
03 · Option
430 °C exhaust direct to HT TES. +18 MWe extra halls. Farm IT 82 MW, +$54M/year. Recip stays 22 MW. Dirty cap 54 MW unchanged. Not engines as the product. Not the 111/154 interconnect-off stack.
CFO
The booked case is Phase 1. Hang-on overlay $6.4–7.5M. $36–39M to close 50 MW of firm IT ($0.72–0.78M/MW), against a planning offtake of $150 million per year. Do not call $36M an overlay. Cooling on 8–10% of tables, not the whole array. This is the 100 MWdc farm, not the 300 MW campus.
Phase 2 books TES and +14 MWe on the same radiator loop — 64 MW, +$42M/year. No dry-cooler condenser. Phase 3 is extra halls from 430 °C into HT TES: +18 MWe, 82 MW, +$54M/year. Recip stays 22 MW. Dirty cap 54 MW unchanged. 111 MW / 154 MW / $333M is a different stack — the interconnect coming off — and is not this walk.
EconomicsCTO
Midday surplus can run conventional chillers. After sunset there is no array to run them, and on the hottest afternoons dry coolers cannot reject 50 MWth. Phase 1 dumps 50 MWth and books 50 MW firm IT. Phase 2 books TES and 14 MWe on the same loop. Phase 3 spends extra clean MWe on extra halls — 82 MW — with recip still 22 MW.
Cooling & generationCounsel
The farm walk reuses the generation permit and the live interconnect. No new water right. No new chiller-yard air permit. 54 MW at the meter, not 62.5. Engines last — 22 MW shaft, not a 54 MW yard. Phase 3 does not “hold 50 MW”; it spends +18 MWe on extra halls inside that same dirty cap. Campus +47 MW inside 375 MW is the other example. Do not mix them.
PermittingWorked example · 100 MWdc existing PV · Pecos, Texas
Phase 1 is the underwritten farm case — grid-tied, cooler on 8–10% of tables, 50 MW of design-target 99.9% firm AI at the existing meter. Remaining PV stays generation on GCCM. Leftover acres take Phase 2 CSP on concrete rail. TES is booked in Phase 2: +14 MWe, 64 MW, +$42M/year, same loop, no dry-cooler condenser. Phase 3 spends +18 MWe on extra halls — 82 MW — with recip still 22 MW inside a 54 MW dirty cap. 111 MW is a different stack.
Design-target 99.9% firm AI. Cooling on 10% of tables. Remaining PV stays generation. First commercial plant.
TES booked here. +14 MWe on the same radiator loop. 64 MW. No dry-cooler condenser.
+18 MWe extra halls. 82 MW. Recip 22 MW. Dirty cap 54 MW. Not 111/154.
Starting plant is 100 MWdc on the same land. Re-module holds 100 MWdc of PV on a denser foundation. 40–50 acres convert to radiator tables. Leftover acres take Phase 2 CSP steel. TES is booked in Phase 2. Phase 3 is extra halls.
$150M / year — Phase 1 firm
50 MW of design-target 99.9% firm AI × $3M per MW-year planning value. A planning year, not a live meter.
$192M / year — 64 MW
Phase 2: 50 + 14 MWe. Same $3M rate. TES booked. Same radiator loop.
82 MW — extra halls
Phase 3: 50 + 14 + 18. $246M/year at $3M per MW-year. Recip 22 MW. Dirty cap 54 MW.
Phase 3 is extra halls, not a residual plant that holds 50 MW. 430 °C exhaust goes direct to HT TES. +18 MWe, 82 MW of IT, +$54M/year. Recip stays 22 MW. Dirty cap 54 MW unchanged. 111 MW firm / 154 MW flex / $333M is the interconnect-off stack — a different walk. Not in the Phase 1 offtake.
Eight-day Pecos screen on the radiator campus: 50 MW firm served in the window, PV held at 100 MWdc, 50 acres reserved for tables. A full-year radiator-campus run is not yet the published design target. Prior whole-field radial year is not this plant. A 10 MWdc pilot — about 5 MW of firm IT — is the step that validates hot-day performance, parasitic demand, and ground-temperature behavior at commercial scale.
