Musk’s xAI to build small solar farm adjacent to Colossus data center (techcrunch.com)

xAI told Memphis planners it will build an 88‑acre solar farm adjacent to its Colossus AI training data center — a site that would likely produce roughly 30 MW of electricity, about 10% of the center’s estimated demand. The announcement sits alongside a previously disclosed, much larger plan for a 100 MW solar farm paired with 100 MW of grid‑scale batteries intended to deliver round‑the‑clock power; the developer of that project received $439 million in federal support (including a $414 million interest‑free loan). A 136‑acre vacant lot nearby could offer additional development space. The project comes amid sharp scrutiny over xAI’s heavy use of natural‑gas turbines: advocacy groups say the company has operated over 400 MW of turbines (with at least 35 capable of emitting more than 2,000 tons of NOx annually) without full permits, and a University of Tennessee study found NO2 spikes of 79% in neighborhoods immediately surrounding Colossus. Local officials granted a temporary permit for 15 turbines through January 2027, while xAI has also deployed dozens of turbines at Colossus 2 in Mississippi (59 onsite, 18 labeled temporary and not tracked). For the AI/ML community, the story highlights the persistent gap between compute demand and clean, reliable power — and underscores regulatory, environmental‑justice and infrastructure challenges that come with scaling large model training.