As the data center boom overtakes rural America, impacted residents are often divided over whether these facilities help or harm their communities. But the commissioners of Laramie County, Wyoming, are willing to bet that building the largest data center campus in the U.S. will bring in jobs, tax revenue, and long-term economic growth.
On January 6, they unanimously approved two site plans for a proposed power plant and data center campus to be built south of Cheyenne. The power plant project, called the BFC Power and Cheyenne Power Hub, is being developed by Tallgrass Energy. It will ultimately provide electricity to the Project Jade data center campus being built by AI infrastructure company Crusoe.
Crusoe and Tallgrass announced the partnership in July, revealing that the data center campus will open with a capacity of 1.6 gigawatts (GW) but will be designed to scale up to 10 GW. Achieving that maximum capacity would make it the largest single AI campus in the U.S.
Big projects with big impacts
The joint project will now progress to the construction phase in the Switch Grass Industrial Park area, located 8 miles south of Cheyenne, according to documentation obtained by Inside Climate News.
Project Jade will be developed on a 600-acre (243-hectare) parcel of land and will consist of five data centers, two support buildings, and additional supporting infrastructure. The BFC Power and Cheyenne Power Hub project will be built right next door on a 659-acre (267-hectare) parcel and will consist of two power generation facilities plus supporting infrastructure.
Crusoe and Tallgrass expect to begin construction in the first quarter of this year, and the first data center building should be operational by the end of 2027, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports.
Before the final vote, the Hyndman Homesites Homeowners Association—which represents a community near the project—wrote a letter to the county commissioners expressing residents’ concerns about drilling deep wells into the local aquifer, gas turbine emissions, the location of wastewater ponds, and other impacts, according to ICN.
Ahead of the final vote, the Hyndman Homesites Homeowners Association, which represents a community near the project, sent a letter to the county commissioners raising concerns about deep aquifer wells, gas turbine emissions, wastewater pond locations, and other impacts, according to ICN.
Studies suggest they’re right to be worried. Researchers have found that data center facilities much smaller than the proposed Jade campus emit harmful air pollutants such as fine particulate matter, guzzle local water resources, and drive up energy bills.
Promises of sustainability
The projects’ developers say they have plans to mitigate local impacts. To reduce the data centers’ water demand, Crusoe intends to implement closed-loop cooling systems that recycle treated water and treatment fluids, according to a 2024 Impact Report.
When Crusoe and Tallgrass announced their partnership in July, they said the data center campus’s proximity to Tallgrass’s existing CO2 sequestration hub will also provide long-term carbon capture solutions for the gas turbines powering the data centers. They added that “future renewable energy developments in the region” could eventually supplement the facilities’ power demand.
Whether these prove to be viable, meaningful solutions remains to be seen. County leadership is apparently comfortable enough with the risks to allow the projects to move forward. The true costs and benefits of their decision won’t become clear until these facilities are operational and the campus begins drawing power, water, and scrutiny at scale.
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