Local authorities will hold a public hearing next month on a massive new gas-fired power project southwest of Phoenix.

Nightpeak Energy, a subsidiary of Energy Spectrum Partners, is planning a new gas-fired power plant capable of generating up to 1,504 megawatts of electricity. Pinal County is accepting comments until Nov. 30 on a draft air permit for the facility.

If built, the Elixir Power Plant could emit nearly 2 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, comparable to more than 405,000 cars and trucks being driven for a year. It could also emit 614 tons per yar of health-harming “criteria” pollutants, including those that form smog and soot.

The facility would be located about five miles southwest of the Ak-Chin Indian Community, a village of less than 900 people southwest of Maricopa, a fast-growing Phoenix exurb with about 76,000 residents. Both are in Pinal County, which has become a hotspot for data center projects. At least six data centers and associated energy facilities have been proposed in the county, with which combined would take up more than 6,000 acres.

The project’s developer has not said whether the Elixir project is meant for data centers. Nightpeak Energy’s website says the company builds energy projects “required to enable data centers, electrification, and peak demand growth.”

The Elixir project would be the company’s biggest power project. Its second-largest is its proposed Bulldog power plant in Brazoria County, Texas, at 620 megawatts. Nightpeak plans to locate that plant alongside its proposed Old Ocean Data Center

Pinal County officials will hold a virtual public hearing on the draft permit at 10 a.m. MST on Nov. 30. See the county's website for more information.