In Vineland, New Jersey, US, 62 gas generators have been working for months next to a data center intended for artificial intelligence loads. All without the required environmental permits. When state inspectors found them, on July 29, 2026, the fleet had already accumulated a total of over 46,000 hours of operation. An estimate based on the technical data of the plants by Rutgers University researcher Xiaomeng Jin comes to around 140 tons of nitrogen oxides, NOx.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection fined DataOne $1.07 million on September 22 for installing and operating the generators without permits required by the state’s air pollution law.
The connection with artificial intelligence passes through Nebius. The site is owned and operated by DataOne, while Nebius uses the facility to install and manage servers and GPUs. And from Vineland the company provides Microsoft with dedicated GPU capacity through a five-year agreement which, according to documentation filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, could be worth approximately $17.4 billion until 2031. Almost 123 megawatts of gas-fired generators. On the authorization front, however, zero.
The first generators were turned on by October 2025
Each generator had a power of 1,982 kW. In New Jersey, the prior permit and operating certificate are already required for appliances of 37 kW and above, as specified by the environmental department itself in the provision against DataOne.
The July 29 inspection, however, comes well after the first machines were turned on. According to the reconstruction contained in a letter subsequently sent by DataOne to the authorities, the generators had begun to arrive in July 2025. Sixteen had entered into operation in October 2025, another sixteen at the beginning of February. As of June 2026, all 62 were turned on.
The environment department claims that during a previous visit, in December 2025, the generators were not observed. Meanwhile, in Vineland someone could definitely hear them.
Tiffany Leone-Vespa, who lives about a mile from the data center, described the noise as sounding like a plane behind her house. County records also show more than one hundred noise reports filed since March, many of which pointed to generators as a possible source. Then the inspectors arrived. After more than 46 thousand hours in total.
The 140 tons of NOx is an estimate
The 140 tons of NOx were not measured by a control unit that had been turned on next to the data center for almost a year. The estimate was developed by Xiaomeng Jin, professor of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University, analyzing the technical data relating to the generators and their operation obtained through public documents. Jin works in atmospheric chemistry, air quality modeling and remote sensing.
We are therefore talking about a technical estimate of emissions, with the uncertainty that necessarily accompanies this type of reconstruction. The number also serves to avoid another misunderstanding: it does not mean that 140 tons of NOx were measured directly in the air breathed by residents.
Jin and Bruce Buckheit, former head of the EPA’s air pollution enforcement division, also calculated what the fleet could produce if used at full capacity: over 1,500 tons of NOx in a year. This is also a potential value, not the quantity actually released. They are two different numbers. One tries to reconstruct what has already happened; the other describes what those 62 machines would be capable of emitting when operating at full utilization.
NOx escapes the data center enclosure
Nitrogen oxides are produced during the combustion of fuels and contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone and secondary particulate matter.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, breathing high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide can irritate the airways and especially aggravate asthma, increasing symptoms such as coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing. Longer exposures can also contribute to the development of asthma and increase vulnerability to respiratory infections.
Gas generators, the New Jersey environmental department also reminds us, also produce carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other pollutants related to combustion.
DataOne disputes authorities’ conclusion that those generators needed permits, but has said it will submit the necessary applications.
The definitive solution should come from fuel cells
The generators were supposed to be a temporary solution. For the stable power supply of the site, Nebius indicates an off-grid electricity production system based on Bloom Energy fuel cells.
On the official page dedicated to the Vineland project, Nebius presents fuel cells as the future energy source of the complex: on-site production through an electrochemical process, without the combustion used by generators and with a lower acoustic impact.
It is the promised solution for permanent data center operation. When the inspectors arrived, however, the 62 gas generators had already accumulated over 46 thousand hours of operation.
