Wyoming County Approves Construction of What Could Become the Largest Data

Wyoming is poised to become an artificial-intelligence powerhouse after Laramie County commissioners last week unanimously voted to move forward with the construction of a 1.8 gigawatt data center designed to eventually scale up to 10 gigawatts, which would be the largest single AI campus in the U.S. 

The facility will include the Project Jade data center campus built by AI infrastructure company Crusoe and the BFC Power and Cheyenne Power Hub built next door by Tallgrass Energy Partners to provide it with electricity. BFC Power and Cheyenne Power Hub will provide on-site power from natural gas turbines. Matt Field, chief real estate officer for Crusoe, told the Laramie County commissioners during last week’s hearing that the first phase of the project will leverage natural gas with a potential pathway for CO2 sequestration in the future. 

Crusoe and Tallgrass announced in July that the center’s close proximity to Tallgrass’ existing CO2 sequestration hub will “provide long-term carbon capture solutions” for the gas turbines powering the data center. “Future renewable energy developments” touted by the companies in their joint statement could include solar power to augment the gas turbines in later stages of the project, according to Wyoming Energy Authority.

The companies have yet to announce the specific tech firms to benefit from the Jade data center, but the project is expected to meet the extreme power and infrastructure demands of hyperscale cloud providers and AI industry leaders, said Crusoe spokesperson Andrew Schmitt.

Both of the interconnected projects are now proceeding to the construction phase in the Switch Grass Industrial Park area, located 8 miles south of Cheyenne. With the site plans approved by the county, Crusoe and Tallgrass energy expect construction to be completed on the first buildings in 2027.

Prior to the final vote, the Hyndman Homesites Homeowners Association, which represents a community adjacent to the project, wrote a letter to the county commissioners requesting that the site plan adhere to certain considerations. The letter details residents’ concerns with deep wells drilled into the aquifer, increased traffic and noise, light pollution, gas turbine emissions, noxious odors and the location of wastewater ponds. Additionally, the letter urged the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to ensure compliance with requirements to minimize the impacts to wildlife migration routes and sensitive habitat inside the project area. 

“We accept the inevitability of the project and want to identify and mitigate concerns before they become problems,” the homeowners’ association wrote.

The AI campus is expected to open with a capacity of 1.8 gigawatts of electricity, over five times more than the roughly 238,000 homes in Wyoming currently use, with the potential to scale up to 10 gigawatts, pending state and county approvals. One gigawatt can power approximately…