Some of the turbines at SpaceXAI Southaven power plant might be on the way out.
On July 30, SpaceXAI announced it will be removing temporary turbines at its Southaven power plant, with plans to install 41 permanent turbines. (xAI is a subsidiary of SpaceX and rebranded as SpaceXAI on July 6.)
In a statement posted on the company's website and socials:
"We have entered into an agreed order with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) establishing a fixed removal timeline for all 69 of the temporary, mobile turbines that currently power our facility in Southaven, Mississippi. We are rapidly removing these mobile turbines as we bring online permanent power from a 1.2 gigawatts power plant we are constructing under our Clean Air
Act permit. We will begin removing temporary turbines from the site as early as August 2026. All temporary turbines will be removed by July 2027. Today's agreed order codifies our commitment to achieve this timeline."
In March, MDEQ approved a Prevention of Significant Deterioration, or PSD, permit for 41 gas turbines at the former Duke Energy plant on Stanton Road in Southaven.
The turbines at the Stanton Road site help power the Colossus 2 data center at 5420 Tulane Road in Memphis. The turbines are also expected to help power the company's third data center, Macrohardrr, in Southaven. A fourth data center is planned at 5414 Tulane Road. Musk confirmed the fourth data center is called "minihard" in response to a post on X by Musk blogger S.E. Robinson Jr.
"The 1.2 GW permanent power plant currently under construction will consist of 41 permanent turbines authorized under a Clean Air Act permit, granted to SpaceXAI in March 2026," SpaceXAI said in a statement.
In April, the NAACP and environmental advocacy groups Young, Gifted & Green and the Safe and Sound Coalition filed an appeal with the MDEQ regarding the PSD permit. The groups are alleging that the approved permit was "unlawful."
Under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Act, permitted turbines are required to meet federal standards, which would include being equipped with emission reduction equipment such as Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology.
According to email correspondence reviewed by The Commercial Appeal between MDEQ staff and Arkansas-based engineering firm Trinity Consultants, SpaceXAI had 60 turbines at the Stanton Road site in June 2026, with 52 in operation last month. Of those 60, only 14 were equipped with SCR technology.
The temporary turbines at the site have been exempt since an August 2025 decision from the MDEQ that mirrored an exemption to the permitting process enforced by the Shelby County Health Department at SpaceXAI's Colossus data center at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road. That exemption allows for the use of temporary turbines for 364 days until a permit is required.
That exemption has been the source of debate and litigation from environmental advocacy groups and has also created uncertainty around the use of turbines at SpaceXAI facilities after the EPA updated its Federal Register in January.
The updated Clean Air Act requires that all combustion gas turbines, temporary or permanent, be permitted.
The number of "temporary" turbines at the SpaceXAI power plant site has grown significantly since the company purchased the Stanton Road site last year. In May, The Commercial Appeal reported that 46 such units were in operation at the site, up from 18 turbines in August 2025. That figure increased to 60 in June and 69 in July.
SpaceXAI's announcement comes after significant criticism, litigation, and calls for transparency of operations at the company's Memphis and Southaven facilities.
Southaven residents have continued to complain and cite noise and air pollution concerns over the SpaceXAI powerplant since the company acquired the property in July 2025.
SpaceXAI said it is looking to minimize noise and community concerns as it spends "millions of dollars in sound walls, silencers, and next-generation turbines with advanced quieting technologies through partnerships with the surrounding community."
Lawsuit launched last spring cites increasing turbines
In May, the NAACP and the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP filed a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, calling for the stop of unpermitted air pollution and alleged Clean Air Act violations at the Southaven power plant. That preliminary injunction was amended in June after discovery cited additional unpermitted turbines at the site. (The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the motion on behalf of the aforementioned entities.)
"While xAI claims it is ‘rapidly removing’ its unpermitted gas turbines from its Southaven site, in reality the opposite is true: the company has been continually expanding its already-enormous Colossus Gas Plant, adding nine new polluting gas turbines and bringing the current total number of turbines to 69," Southern Environmental Law Center Litigation Director Kym Meyer said in a statement.
Meyer added that the agreement between SpaceXAI and MDEQ "confirms that xAI plans to continue spewing dangerous and illegal air pollution into communities," and called for the immediate shutdown of the facility before July 2027.
On July 28, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) wrote a letter to Elon Musk demanding accountability for operations at Colossus and Colossus 2 data centers. In the letter, Congressman Pallone is requesting documentation and analysis between SpaceXAI and local and state authorities in Tennessee and Mississippi regarding the data centers by Aug. 11.
Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at neil.strebig@commercialappeal.com, 901-426-0679
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: SpaceXAI says temporary turbines are out, with permanent ones on the way
