What is a power foundry?

A power foundry is dedicated, behind-the-meter power generation built where the fuel already is — purpose-built to energize AI data centers. Instead of waiting years in a utility interconnection queue, the data center is built on the same ground as its own generation, fueled by natural gas contracted at the source. Online in months, not queue years.

A semiconductor foundry doesn't ship sand to a chip company; it turns raw material into finished compute at the source. A power foundry does the same with energy: raw molecules in one side, firm contracted electrons out the other, on ground engineered for the load that consumes them.

Why the grid can't keep up

AI data centers need utility-scale blocks of power — often 100 megawatts and up — and they need it on the buildout's schedule. The grid was never designed to add loads that size that fast. In ERCOT, a large-load interconnection means an interconnection request, cluster studies, potential transmission upgrades, and years of calendar time before the first electron flows. Every major market has a version of the same queue, and the queue is the bottleneck for the entire AI buildout.

The stranded-gas half of the equation

Meanwhile, the Permian Basin produces more associated natural gas than its pipelines can carry away. Gas with nowhere to go gets stranded in the field, and West Texas prices at the Waha hub have repeatedly traded near or below zero — producers paying to have energy taken away. The most energy-rich basin on the planet has a surplus exactly where the grid has a shortage.

How it works

A power foundry closes that gap behind the meter. Generation is built on the same site as the data center, on the customer's side of the meter, so power never touches the transmission grid: no interconnection request, no cluster study, no place in line. Fuel is firm West Texas gas contracted at the source. The output is sold as firm, contracted power — typically under a long-term power purchase agreement — with the timeline set by equipment, permitting, and construction rather than by a queue.

Who builds them

Corley Energy — a behind-the-meter independent power producer founded in 2024 by Jake Corley, Tim Bozeman, and Mark Meyer — coined the model with its flagship development, Power Foundry: roughly one thousand acres in Upton County, Texas, with land secured, gas supply signed, and permits pulled. Hundreds of megawatts with a path to gigawatt scale. Current capacity availability is on the Sites page; the corporate record is on the Company Facts page.

Common questions

Is behind-the-meter gas power reliable enough for data centers? Reliability is engineered, not inherited: dedicated generation is sized with redundancy (N+1 or better) for the specific load it serves, fueled by firm gas supply under contract, so uptime is a design parameter of the plant rather than a property of the surrounding grid.

Is this the same as a microgrid? It's a close cousin. A microgrid usually supplements or islands from grid service. A power foundry is grid-independent by design from day one — the primary and permanent source of power, not a backup.

What about emissions? Modern gas generation with air permits from TCEQ burns gas that in many cases would otherwise be flared or shut in. Turning that molecule into productive compute is the highest-value use it has.

Keep reading

Why is Waha gas so cheap? · The ERCOT queue, explained · Behind-the-meter vs grid: the cost math · How to evaluate a BTM power provider