- Project Baccara is not the first facility of its kind. Simple-cycle gas combustion turbine plants and gas-powered data centers already operate in Arizona and elsewhere, and a public record exists for each of them.
- Two of the four facilities described here were sited decades ago on what was then farmland or open desert. The residential neighborhoods now around them grew up after construction.
- One of the four, Vantage Data Centers in Sterling, Virginia, is the closest structural match to Baccara: a data center powered by on-site natural gas turbines rather than grid electricity. Its nearest residents live across the street.
- The closest direct parallel in turbine technology, SRP's Coolidge Generating Station, sits adjacent to a small unincorporated community. It received a settlement and a capacity-factor cap only after that community organized and went to court.
Project Baccara is described in permit documents as a 700-megawatt natural gas generating facility using 18 simple-cycle combustion turbines with 72-foot exhaust stacks, sited on approximately 160 acres roughly two miles from residential neighborhoods in north Surprise.1 What such a facility looks like, sounds like, and means for neighbors is not a matter of speculation. Facilities of similar scale and similar technology are already operating. Their permit files, air quality data, and community histories are a matter of public record.
The four facilities below were chosen for comparability, not for rhetorical effect. Each uses natural gas combustion turbines. Each sits in proximity to residential neighborhoods. The intent is to show what the public record establishes, with sources, and to let the reader draw the comparison independently.
At a Glance
| Facility | Turbines | Capacity | Nearest residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Baccara (proposed, Surprise, AZ) | 18 simple-cycle | 700 MW | Approximately 2 miles |
| Coolidge Generating Station (Pinal County, AZ) | 12 simple-cycle (aero-derivative) | 575 MW | Adjacent (Randolph) |
| Vantage Data Centers VA-2 (Sterling, VA) | 8 gas turbines | 135 MW | Across Glenn Drive |
| Agua Fria Generating Station (Peoria, AZ) | 5 combustion turbines + 3 steam units | 722 MW (total) | Within 1.25 miles |
| Kyrene Generating Station (Tempe, AZ) | 7 generators (mixed) | 521 MW (total) | Within surrounding neighborhoods |
Coolidge Generating Station
Pinal County, Arizona — adjacent to Randolph
Coolidge is the closest analog to Project Baccara in turbine technology and plant layout. The existing facility consists of 12 General Electric LM6000 aero-derivative simple-cycle combustion turbine generators with a combined capacity of 575 megawatts. Each unit has an exhaust stack of approximately 85 feet.2 The plant was built between 2009 and 2011 by TransCanada under a power purchase agreement with SRP, and SRP purchased the facility outright in 2019.2
The plant sits at the southern edge of the City of Coolidge, directly adjacent to Randolph, a historically African-American unincorporated community.3 In 2021, SRP proposed expanding the facility with 16 additional turbines. The Arizona Corporation Commission denied the expansion in April 2022 in part because of concerns about impacts on Randolph residents and the adequacy of public participation.4 In June 2023, after a settlement with Randolph parties, the ACC approved a reduced expansion of 12 turbines and 575 megawatts, moved slightly farther from the community, with a 30 percent capacity-factor cap across the new units and a commitment by SRP not to add further gas generation at the site.4 Construction on the expansion began in spring 2024, with the first six turbines scheduled for commercial operation by summer 2026.5
The settlement included approximately $23.75 million in commitments to Randolph, road paving to offset dust, and a home rehabilitation program of up to $25,000 per home for sixty homes.4 A capacity-factor cap and these community commitments were negotiated after a community that organized over several years, litigated to a state regulator, and accepted a reduced but still-approved project.
Vantage Data Centers, Sterling
Loudoun County, Virginia — across Glenn Drive from residences
Vantage's Sterling campus is the first data center in Virginia to run on its own natural gas microgrid. Its site plan allows eight natural gas turbines housed in one of the complex's buildings, intended originally as a temporary arrangement until Dominion Energy could connect the site to the grid. Dominion advised the company that a grid connection would take approximately three years, and the turbines have been running continuously since.6
A residential subdivision of single-family homes, part of the Trailside Homeowners Association, sits across Glenn Drive from the facility. Residents report continuous tonal noise and low-frequency vibration audible inside their homes. The Loudoun County supervisor for the area has publicly acknowledged that the county's 55 dBA industrial noise limit, measured at the residential property line, was not designed to capture the "tonal narrow-band hums" or low-frequency components that the turbines produce. At least a dozen formal noise complaints have been filed; none has been found to violate the existing ordinance.7
An independent analysis released in March 2026 by EmPower Analytics Group, commissioned by the Piedmont Environmental Council, estimated that the fine particulate emissions permitted from the eight turbines could produce between $53 million and $99 million per year in health-related damages to the surrounding population, driven primarily by premature mortality and respiratory and cardiovascular disease.8 Vantage states that it operates below its permitted emissions limits and within county noise ordinances. Virginia issues this category of permit as a minor air permit, with no public comment process.8
Project Baccara is the same structural model: a data center whose power is generated on site by natural gas turbines rather than drawn from the grid. Baccara is larger, with 18 turbines rather than 8, and its permit is a Title V major source permit rather than a minor permit. The comparison is not in the scale of the permit. It is in what happens after the turbines start.
Agua Fria Generating Station
Peoria, Arizona — 1.25 miles east of residential cemetery and city
Agua Fria is the closest operating natural gas plant of this scale to Surprise. It is visible to residents of Peoria, Glendale, and north Phoenix. The plant has a combined capacity of 722 megawatts across eight generating units: three conventional steam units and five combustion turbine generators, two of which are recently added aero-derivative natural gas turbines capable of ramping to full production quickly.9
The site was developed in 1955 on what SRP describes as "agricultural fields surrounded by empty desert landscape." The first two steam units were dedicated in February 1958.9 The city grew around the plant over the decades that followed. Glendale Memorial Park Cemetery now sits 1.25 miles to the east; the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix sits 4.5 miles to the south.10
The historical pattern at Agua Fria is the reverse of the pattern at Surprise. Agua Fria was built in open land; the residential development came later. Project Baccara is proposed for a site approximately two miles from established residential neighborhoods that already exist.
Kyrene Generating Station
Tempe, Arizona — within surrounding residential neighborhoods
Kyrene is the oldest operating power plant in SRP's system. The first two steam generation units were completed in 1952 and 1954, with three combustion turbines added in the early 1970s.11 The plant has a total installed capacity of 521 megawatts across 7 generators.12 Like Agua Fria, Kyrene was sited when the surrounding area was agricultural, and Tempe has grown up around it.
Kyrene is included here because residents of Tempe, Chandler, and the southeast valley have photographed and documented visible exhaust plumes rising from the plant during operation. The plumes are visible because combustion turbines produce hot exhaust and water vapor that become visible under the right atmospheric conditions. Project Baccara's permit authorizes 18 stacks discharging at 400 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit under normal operation.13
What the Record Shows
These four facilities represent different eras, different technologies, and different relationships with the communities that surround them. The patterns are worth naming.
At Agua Fria and Kyrene, the plants came first and the city followed. At Coolidge, the community was already there; it took years of organizing and a court-supervised settlement to secure a 30 percent capacity cap and community investment. At Vantage, the noise arrived with the turbines, the county's ordinance could not address it, and residents have been asking for relief for as long as the turbines have been running.
None of these facilities was cited by the developer of Project Baccara as a precedent in its public materials.14 Community members looking at the permit record are left to identify the comparable cases themselves.