Wyoming Has Questions About Proposed Data Centers

Several proposed data centers might be coming to Wyoming. Several around the state capital of Cheyenne.

Cheyenne, Wyoming, is experiencing a massive surge in data center development, driven by AI demand. A massive $800M+ Meta campus, a 1.8 GW AI facility from Crusoe/Tallgrass, and massive expansion plans from Microsoft (3,200 acres) near and in the High Plains Business Park and south of Cheyenne. These centers will be worth billions of dollars to the community.

There are questions, concerns, and even a small movement to stop them. So let's take a look at what we know about how data centers actually work. However, there will still be questions that need to be answered.

Data centers are secure, specialized facilities that house, process, and store massive amounts of digital data using networked computers (servers), storage systems, and networking equipment. Everything you do on a computer, including your cell phone, lives somewhere, physically. Those physical locations are data centers.

These new proposed data centers are talking about creating their own power so they don't have to draw from our almost overtaxed existing grid. This will keep local energy prices where they are. But producing their own power has environmental impacts that we must talk about.

Then there is the issue of water. Wyoming is a dry state, and data centers are said to use a lot of water.

Water is used both directly for cooling and indirectly through electricity generation, with usage expected to rise sharply due to AI demands.

To reduce their footprint, some data centers are adopting closed-loop systems, air cooling, and using non-potable or recycled water.

Listeners to Wyoming's morning radio talk show Wake Up Wyoming have been asking questions.

Data centers consume significant water, often millions of gallons daily, primarily for cooling servers via evaporation in cooling towers to prevent overheating. But power also must be created to run the data centers, and that also takes water. Wind and solar power do not provide enough energy to run these centers and are unreliable. Data centers need consistent energy, not intermittent.

Google operates Oregon data centers at The Dalles. Their water-use totals were 355.1 million gallons, a quarter of the city’s annual water use in 2021.

In an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting two years ago, Morrow County’s David Sykes said that during negotiations with Amazon, “We did talk water use …because, especially here in Eastern Oregon, water is very important. Some industries use a lot more water than they need. They use it for cooling in the summer. A lot of it’s being recycled through. So, they’re pretty good and judicious with their water use, we feel.”

Part of the reason for these data centers wanting to move to states like Wyoming is the ability to 'air cool'. Most of the year, Wyoming is cooler than most other states. Imagine something like opening the windows to allow filtered air in. However, the system is a bit more complicated than that.

Evaporative cooling is the most common and effective use of water to cool data centers. As air passes through the medium, the water evaporates, cooling the air.

Water cooling through pipes is water pumped through pipes surrounding IT equipment. It flows through the processing units. Then through a radiator. Fans remove the heat. A reservoir may hold extra water. Water cooling systems fall into two categories: open loop and closed loop. (Sunbird).

So, how much water will Wyoming data centers need? Does Wyoming have enough to spare? The investigation and discussion have just begun.