Data Center from Hell proposed for desert country Utah

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‘Irresponsible’: backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan

Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amount of water in drought-stricken area.

A plan to create one of the world’s largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, has provoked a furious public backlash in Utah amid concerns over its vast energy use and impact upon the state’s stressed water supplies.

The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years.

Last week, the project was approved by the county’s commissioners, despite thousands of objections lodged by Utah residents. Environmentalists have warned that Stratos could imperil the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, including a critical migratory bird habitat, which is already under severe stress.

The lake is shrinking due to water diverted for agriculture and the impact of the climate crisis, placing inhabitants of the nearby Salt Lake City at possible risk of toxic dust clouds as the lake bed dries up.

“At a time when the Great Salt Lake is already in crisis, approving a project that will consume water and energy at this scale is irresponsible and dangerous,” said Franque Bains, director of the Sierra Club’s Utah chapter. **“**Utahns want to see the Great Salt Lake restored, not stripped.”

The proposed project is backed by Kevin O’Leary, the venture capitalist who appears on the TV show Shark Tank and recently played a villainous tycoon in the movie Marty Supreme. O’Leary has claimed Stratos will deliver thousands of jobs and help the US compete with China in the burgeoning AI industry.

But these jobs will not outweigh the longer-term impacts to Utah and beyond, critics argue. Stratos is expected to raise the state’s planet-heating pollution by about 50% by consuming a huge amount of energy and water to power and cool itself, according to one impact analysis.

The network of industrial-scale fans needed to cool the datacenter’s hot pipes will result in so much waste heat that it could raise daytime temperatures in the surrounding Hansel valley by 2F to 5F (1.1C to 2.7C) and night-time temperatures by 8F to 12F (4.4C to 6.6C), according to an analysis by Rob Davies, a physics professor at Utah State University.

“The thermal load from the proposed Stratos project is extreme,” Davies said. “Of course it has effects. One of those effects is this: this facility imposes substantial drying on a watershed and ecosystem already in active collapse.”

O’Leary said the extra electricity demand won’t raise residents’ energy bills as new gas-fired generation will power the facility. “We are building power from scratch, from the pipeline,” he said. “We are going to burn it with turbines, clean,” he added, although gas is a fossil fuel that is dangerously overheating the world and isn’t clean.

Nearly 4,000 people have lodged objections to the project being approved, with this pushback leading to contentious public meetings that Lee Perry, the Box Elder county commissioner, said have left him feeling “physically sick” amid alleged death threats and false accusations.

I never thought the Mormons could be bamboozled like this.
Jaak

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They were in on it. Nothing on this scale gets built in Utah without the church signing off on it. The whole thing is a little sketchier than even the article made it out to be. The government used a special military development program to circumvent normal zoning and planning laws. Most people found out about it the day it was announced. Gov. Cox made a very boneheaded comment to the effect of public input isn’t good, and that’s why they moved so fast. That got people riled up.

Normally, the data center companies do a bunch of community outreach before building something like this. For example, small towns can’t handle the number of construction workers required. So the construction companies will bring in their own fuel tanks, grocery stores, bars, housing, etc. But they do it partnership with the town. They want the locals to make money, but they don’t want empty out all the diesel fuel either. Also, they will be moving a bunch big equipment, so they agree to do all the road maintenance for the town while construction is going on. Things like that. It takes a while to hammer those things out. Stratos hasn’t done any of that, which is very odd.

I’m from Box Elder County by the way. The location is actually pretty good in a lot of ways. It is in the absolute middle of nowhere. The nearest town is maybe a couple hundred people. Thousands of construction workers would wipe it out. If my local Facebook friends are any indication, people are really, really steamed about this project. It is all anyone is talking about.

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There needs to be lots of infrastructure brought in to make it work. There will be a huge need for new electrical power, water supplies, fiber optic, roads, homes, schools, medical facilities, grocery stores, gas stations, garbage collection, sewage, police/fire, etc.

Prayers and fasting to help break fierce drought conditions are needed according to Governor Cox:

Faced with a similar public backlash in Utah, Spencer Cox, the state’s governor, on Friday said he will require that the Stratos project doesn’t harm the Great Salt Lake or raise power bills. The developers will build the datacenter in phases, he said, initially spanning 2,000 acres before scaling up further subject to future reviews*.*

“Utahns should expect clear standards and accountability,” Cox said. Last year, the governor asked people in Utah to pray and fast to help break fierce drought conditions.

“Industry is our state’s motto,” Cox added on Friday. “And in our pursuit of economic strength, we must always ensure that development is thoughtful and in line with Utah values.”

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I’m no fan of irresponsible AI buildout (which describes 99.9% of it), but to pick a nit - the power will be built as part of the development, no tie-ins to the grid are necessary. While the location is remote, it’s not on the moon. Workers can travel in from the Wasatch Front. Some infrastructure is definitely needed, but they don’t have to build out an entire community with schools, homes, yada, yada.

All of that said, Kevin O’Leary shouldn’t be trusted. He’s the shadiest Shark in the Tank.

There will be impacts to the local community, some good, many bad. There’s still a long road to the start of construction. Lots of studies and approvals…of proposed plans that aren’t yet complete. Also, looks like voters are pushing to get a referendum on the November ballot to overturn the council’s decision.

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The Mormon Church is basically a very successful business entity. I say that based on 50 years of living in the state of Utah.

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This made me laugh. “Utah values”. In the little town I live in, every time the local populace and county commission have tried to impose reasonable planning goals for growth, the state legislature intervenes and reverses decisions. You know…those Republicans who believe local government knows best. Ha!

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They estimated the data center will employ about 2,000 people when complete. The county can probably absorb that many without too much trouble.

But data center campus construction projects have on the order of 10,000 workers at peak. The biggest town in the county is only 20,000 and it is about an hour from the proposed location.

They were able to skip all that. The lead agency is the state’s mysterious Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA). MIDA has the power to trump local zoning and taxing authority, and MIDA gave it two thumbs up. The county planning commission tehn approved it, but they might not have had a choice. I understand if it is a legal project the planning commission typically can’t block it. Maybe @albaby1 can weigh in on that.

The odd planning process is one of the reasons people are so hot about it.

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My mom was on the city planning commission for years. One day a power company showed up and said they wanted to build a big transmission line right through town. The planning commission told them the powerline was fine, just build it out in the desert where nobody lives. It was only a couple miles out of the way so no big deal, right?

The power company went away and came back with a freshly minted law that said they can build the transmission line where ever they want. The city looked into and decided they couldn’t block it. The next town over tried to block it, got sued and lost.

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I do not think that will work. The grid is that backup for all data centers currently.

  • If they plan on nuclear power, then NRC requires two independent offsite sources of electrical power.
  • If they plan on solar and wind then they will need battery farm backup.
  • If they plan on natural gas generation then they need NG pipe line.
  • If they plan on dirty coal, then they need coal trains/pipelines.

All of these need people to operate and maintain the power generation facilities.

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Does that include their power generation facilities which requires O&M with people.
Read my post about their power generation needs for people.

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They are proposing to build their own power plant. One reason they like this location is that it is on a fairly large natural gas pipeline already.

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It’s already working.

Behind-the-meter (BTM) power is in, grid power is out.

They’re able to skip local and city red tape, but may still have to involve the UT Department of Environmental Quality.

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The existing NG pipeline is like a NG grid. Is the existing NG pipeline sufficient for its current users and the new dada center? How many NG combined-cycle power plants will they build? Each one requires O&M workers. What will they use for backup power? Will they use solar & wind with batteries?

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These are only work in progress. None of these have completed construction and started operation. They still need pipelines, and they will surely request grid connection for backup.

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

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Many data centers have generator back-up. That’s why Cummins is making it rain!

I don’t have any chickens, counting them is easy. I’m in no way trying to make an argument that I support building this monstrosity of a data center. That said, we need to keep it real when it comes to the negative impacts. No doubt there will be environmental impacts.

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I don’t have much to add - I think it goes without saying that I have zero familiarity with the specifics of Utah land use, development, or planning law.

Except perhaps to note that this kind of tracks, at a 30,000 foot level. It’s not uncommon for states to have some processes where the locals don’t get to call all of the shots (or even any of the shots). Here in Florida, for example, there are special rules for development of state university system campuses or power plant siting or certain types of communications infrastructure (cable in rights-of-way) - categories of uses where authority is stripped from municipal or county commissions and instead vested in state agencies. So it wouldn’t surprise me if any given state had some weird process lurking around in the land development section of the state statutes that someone might turn to for a LULU (locally undesirable land use) that they expect to draw a lot of opposition.

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Another LOL. Utah is bought and sold. I would not expect any real resistance.

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One of the controversies around the data center is the water consumption. I’ve never seen an official figure, but that much power will require enormous amounts of cooling. This is controversial given that the Great Salt Lake appears to be on the brink of collapse. As the lake recedes, it exposes sediment with high concentrations of heavy metals and silica. There are already some documented public health issues associated with this, and the fear is that as the lake recedes this problem will become more severe.

In related news, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared a drought emergency and asked everyone except for data centers to cut back on water usage.

It appears the commenters were not amused.

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These Cummins fossil fuel generators are too small, inefficient, polluting and expensive to run. The largest is only 100 kW. Data centers are need MW size backup power.

For example:
The Saticoy battery storage system is a 100 MW/400 MWh battery energy storage system located in Saticoy, California. The project was developed by Strata Clean Energy and is owned and operated by Arevon. The Saticoy battery storage system is one of the largest battery storage projects in California and was completed in June 2021.

https://energydigital.com/top10/top-10-us-battery-energy-storage-facilities

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It depends on the power requirements thar data centers are planning on using. For natural gas combined cycle power plants the water requirements are known. For power from combined wind + solar + batteries, the water requirements are small. For coal and nuclear the water requirements are 2X more than NG combined cycle power plants.

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