Texas
The first thing worth establishing is which grid your ground sits on, because Texas has more than one. Most of the state is inside ERCOT, but the Panhandle, El Paso, and a slice of East Texas are not, and that changes who has to agree to a project and how long agreement takes. After that it is a question of what transmission runs near you and which wires company holds your area. Send us the county, a rough acreage, and anything you have seen around the place. We do that lookup at no cost and tell you either way, including when the answer is that your ground does not suit this.
This is the first question everywhere and it deserves a real answer instead of a dodge. We will not publish a per acre figure for Texas. A number quoted before anybody has looked at your ground is not a number, it is a guess with a dollar sign on it, and in a state this varied it would be wrong more often than right. What we can do is set out what actually moves it.
What sits near the property electrically drives this further than size, soil, or frontage. A quarter section adjoining a substation with spare capacity is a different asset to a full section twenty miles from any of it, and the deed will not tell you which you own.
Requests for large connections in ERCOT rose sharply through 2025, which means capacity near your ground may already be spoken for by somebody further ahead in line. Ground where a project can actually get connected in a reasonable time is worth more than ground that merely looks right.
One block under one ownership is worth more than the same acreage split by a highway, a rail line, or a neighbour who has not decided anything yet. Assembly after the fact is slow and gets priced as such.
Some landowners take payment for a period of exclusivity while a project establishes whether it can be built, and keep running cattle or crops throughout. Others sell. The money, the certainty, and the tax treatment all differ, and which fits depends on your situation rather than your acreage.
An option commonly runs a year or several, and the ground generally keeps doing what it already does. Survey crews and soil testing turn up occasionally and work around the operation rather than displacing it.
Large low buildings, a substation, security fencing, and lighting at night. Anybody describing it as blending into ranch country is selling you something. It is quieter than an interstate and much busier than pasture.
In dry parts of Texas this is the question that matters most to neighbours, and designs vary enormously in how much water they need. Ask any developer directly what their cooling approach is. An unwillingness to answer plainly tells you something worth knowing.
A great deal of Texas ground carries severed minerals, existing pooling arrangements, or wind and solar leases. None of that automatically rules out a project, but all of it has to be understood early, and it is better raised by you at the start than found by a title company at the end.
ERCOT operates the grid covering most of Texas, and it is not synchronously connected to the rest of the country. The Panhandle, El Paso, and part of East Texas sit outside it. Whether your ground is inside or outside changes who must approve a connection, how long that takes, and which rules apply. It is the first thing we establish about any Texas property.
In deregulated parts of Texas the company that owns the poles and lines serving you is fixed by geography, while the retailer you pay is one you chose. Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, and Texas-New Mexico Power are wires companies. For a project like this the wires company is what matters, because it owns the connection. If you are on a cooperative or a municipal utility, that distinction does not apply to you.
There is no fixed answer, and anybody offering one without seeing your ground is guessing. Whether the acreage is contiguous, and what runs near it electrically, matters far more than the total. Smaller places beside real capacity beat larger ones that are miles from anything.
Not automatically, and sometimes the opposite, since existing energy infrastructure often means transmission is already nearby. What it does mean is that the existing agreements have to be read carefully and early. Tell us about them at the start rather than letting them surface later.
Do not sign, and do not be hurried by a deadline in the letter. Establish who they are and whether they are buying for themselves or for a party they have not named. Have an attorney read it before you agree to anything. That applies just as much to a letter from us as from anyone else.
No. It applies to equipment a qualifying data center operator buys, not to your land or your sale. It is relevant only because it helps explain why developers look at Texas, and because its thresholds push interest towards larger properties.
It is a 2025 law changing how large electrical loads connect inside ERCOT, including requirements that new large facilities be capable of being curtailed or disconnected remotely during a grid emergency. It applies to the operator rather than to you, but it affects what developers are willing to build and where, which reaches your ground indirectly.
Often nothing. Many arrangements involve a portion of a property while the remainder carries on grazing or cropping as before. It is a reasonable thing to ask about in the first conversation, and we would rather you did.
Texas is unusual twice over. Most of the state runs on its own grid, ERCOT, which is not synchronously connected to the rest of the country, while the Panhandle, El Paso, and part of East Texas sit outside it. On top of that, much of the state is deregulated, meaning the wires company that owns the poles serving you is assigned by geography while the retailer you pay is chosen. For our purposes the wires company is the one that matters, because it owns the connection. Cooperatives and municipal utilities were largely left out of deregulation and operate differently again. If you are not sure which applies to you, the top of your electric bill usually names the wires company separately from the retailer.
Texas exempts certain equipment used in qualifying data centers from state sales and use tax under section 151.359 of the Tax Code. To qualify, a facility generally has to occupy at least 100,000 square feet, involve capital investment of at least 200 million dollars within five years, and create at least 20 qualifying jobs in the county where it sits, not counting jobs moved from another Texas county. The operator applies to the Comptroller for certification and a registration number. The exemption runs ten years from certification where the investment is at least 200 million and under 250 million dollars, with longer terms above that. It does not extend to office equipment, janitorial supplies, or items used mainly for sales or transportation. Separately and more recently, Senate Bill 6 took effect in June 2025 and changed the terms on which large electrical loads connect inside ERCOT. Facilities interconnecting after the end of 2025 have to develop curtailment protocols and install equipment allowing ERCOT to disconnect them remotely during grid emergencies. None of this money reaches you as a landowner. It matters because it explains why developers want Texas ground, and because the investment and square footage thresholds push projects towards larger sites rather than small ones.
Programs change. Confirm anything that matters to your decision with your own advisor before acting on it.
Existing heavy industrial load, generation nearby, and a planned 765 kilovolt transmission backbone intended to serve the region's growth. Land is plentiful and the electrical picture is better than the population density would suggest, which is an unusual combination.
Outside ERCOT, on the Southwest Power Pool, with substantial wind generation already built and the transmission that came with it. Being on a different grid changes who has to agree and how long it takes, in both directions.
Central and west of the Metroplex, with transmission built out for wind and enough distance from major population centres to keep land within reach. This stretch has drawn genuine attention.
Counties an hour or two out from Dallas and Fort Worth, in Oncor territory, where there is still real acreage and existing transmission. Closer in the land price has usually settled the question already.
Parts of this area sit outside ERCOT, and much of it carries existing industrial and petrochemical load along with the infrastructure serving it. Ground here works differently to the west and needs looking at on its own terms.