Professor says xAI turbines don’t affect air quality if company’s claims are true
“And that xAI actually is quite very, very spacious. It’s vacant ... land, basically. And that facility is standing in the middle of a huge, large vacant land,” Professor Chunrong Jia said. “So it’s reasonable to assume the air-pollution levels in that region would be similar or even lower than the concentrations measured at the Shelby Farms Park.” (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
A University of Memphis professor and researcher has found that, if xAI’s claims are accurate, the artificial intelligence company’s natural gas turbines do not threaten local air quality.
Chunrong Jia, a professor in the U of M’s division of epidemiology, biostatistics and environmental health, modeled the impact of what xAI’s turbines would have on air quality in Southwest Memphis. He used information from xAI’s Shelby County Health Department application to make 15 of its 30-plus turbines permanent.
Jia modeled the air-quality impact at the request of Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s administration. The city did not pay Jia for the modeling work.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on the intersection of government, public policy, influence and how public dollars are spent.
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