CleanSpark Sealy Data Center, Austin County, Texas

CleanSpark is proposing a 285-megawatt data center campus off Substation Road, about three miles outside Sealy in Austin County, Texas, where county commissioners have imposed a moratorium on new data centers while they write rules. CleanSpark announced in October 2025 that it had acquired rights to about 271 acres and signed power supply agreements for the full 285 megawatts, and it now expects to bring more than 200 megawatts online in the first half of 2027. Meta has signed a letter of intent for 885 megawatts across CleanSpark's Sealy and Brazoria sites, an SEC filing tied to a separate Meta lease in Sandersville, Georgia shows.

On July 27, 2026, after nearly two hours of debate, the Austin County Commissioners Court in Bellville voted unanimously to impose a moratorium on battery storage systems and data centers across the county. Residents raised noise, water use, electrical demand, traffic and light pollution; one landowner near an existing battery site on Substation Road said she measured about 61 decibels on her property. "We are not going to lay down and take it. We are here to fight," resident Lisa Hicks said at a CleanSpark open house on August 14 that drew about 250 residents, the Sealy News reported.

County officials say CleanSpark's substation work does not amount to approval for a data center, since no complete development permit application has been filed; CleanSpark says the substation on the land was always meant to serve one. County Judge Tim Lapham said the moratorium is one of the few tools the county has to set standards before more companies follow.

On August 12, Gov. Greg Abbott said CleanSpark, Google and Rowan had agreed to comply with his data center standards, which require the Public Utility Commission of Texas and grid operator ERCOT to review each project's power, water and neighbor-impact plans. On September 21, Abbott went further, ordering the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to stop issuing new data center permits until ERCOT and the Texas Water Development Board finish auditing the industry. The Austin County moratorium has no fixed end date, and the Commissioners Court that adopted it will decide what permanent rules follow.