A massive Wyoming data center will soon use 5x more power than the state's human occupants - but no one knows who is using it : r/technology
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A massive Wyoming data center will soon use 5x more power than the state's human occupants - but no one knows who is using it
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — An artificial intelligence data center that would use more electricity than every home in Wyoming combined before expanding to as much as five times that size will be built soon near Cheyenne, according to the city’s mayor.
“It’s a game changer. It’s huge,” Mayor Patrick Collins said Monday.
- With cool weather — good for keeping computer temperatures down — and an abundance of inexpensive electricity from a top energy-producing state, Wyoming’s capital has become a hub of computing power.
- The city has been home to Microsoft data centers since 2012. An $800 million data center announced last year by Facebook parent company Meta Platforms is nearing completion, Collins said.
The latest data center, a joint
effort between regional energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI
data center developer Crusoe, would begin at 1.8 gigawatts of
electricity and be scalable to 10 gigawatts, according to a joint
company statement.
A gigawatt can power as many as 1 million homes. But that’s more homes than Wyoming has people. The least populated state, Wyoming, has about 590,000 people.
A gigawatt can power as many as 1 million homes. But that’s more homes than Wyoming has people.
The least populated state, Wyoming, has about 590,000 people.A gigawatt can power as many as 1 million homes.
.According to calculations by Ars Technica, the plant would consume 15.8TWh annually, five times that of the state's residents. The full 10GW expansion would consume more than double the state's entire electricity generation each year
And it’s a major exporter of energy. A top producer of coal, oil and gas, Wyoming ranks behind only Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania as a top net energy-producing state, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Accounting for fossil fuels, Wyoming produces about 12 times more energy than it consumes. The state exports almost three-fifths of the electricity it produces, according to the EIA.
But this proposed data center so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources, according to Collins and company officials.
Gov. Mark Gordon praised the project’s value to the state’s gas industry.
“This is exciting news for Wyoming and for Wyoming natural gas producers,” Gordon said in the statement.
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