A change in the cooling technology for the big and controversial Project Blue data center campus near the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson has apparently prompted e-commerce giant Amazon to withdraw from the project.
As proposed by Beale Infrastructure, which has offices in Dallas and San Francisco, what has been called Project Blue is centered on the $3.6 billion construction of a data center campus spread out over 290 acres that would include up to ten buildings measuring around 2 million square feet.
The project has sparked opposition from area residents and community activists who have charged that data center would require too much water to operate. One of the most vocal groups has been the No Desert Data Center Coalition, which has declared on its website that it is opposed to “any development that has no intention to actively regenerate and revitalize the land.”
In September, Beale announced that it was changing the design of the proposal, noting that it would now incorporate air cooling technology that would utilize a closed-loop system.
In making that announcement, the company said a closed-loop system will “consume no water, potable or otherwise, for industrial cooling.”
Now, notes the publication Data Center Dynamics, Amazon has pulled out after deeming the change in technology as “unacceptable.”
Despite Amazon’s exit, Project Blue is giving every evidence of moving forward with a vote by the Arizona Corporation Commission authorizing the Tucson Electric Power Company to provide upwards of 350 megawatts of electricity for the center.
Notes the Arizona Republic: “That’s enough electricity to power tens of thousands of homes and would make it the utility’s largest customer.”
Plans currently call for work on the massive data center to launch sometime early next year.
December 9, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy Pixabay
