Wyoming’s 10 GW AI Data Center to Outpace State Electricity Demand
On July 29, Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins announced a groundbreaking joint venture between energy-infrastructure specialist Tallgrass Energy and AI data-center developer Crusoe. The proposed facility is slated to begin at 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of IT load and eventually scale to 10 GW—enough to consume more electricity than all residential, commercial, and industrial users in Wyoming combined.
Project Overview
The multi-phase development, located several miles south of Cheyenne near US Route 85, will be built in stages: an initial 1.8 GW deployment followed by incremental builds through 10 GW. Mayor Collins and company officials emphasize that traditional grid draw cannot support this demand, so the site will feature on-site generation and dedicated renewable assets.
Power Requirements and Scale
At 1.8 GW, the facility will draw roughly 15.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year—over five times the 3 TWh consumed annually by all Wyoming households and 91 percent of the state’s total 17.3 TWh demand across every sector. At full 10 GW capacity, annual consumption jumps to 87.6 TWh, double Wyoming’s entire 43.2 TWh generation output in 2024.
- Phase 1 (1.8 GW): 15.8 TWh/year
- Phase 2–X (up to 10 GW): 87.6 TWh/year
- State generation capacity: 43.2 TWh/year (2024)
Energy Infrastructure and Self-Generation
To bypass grid limitations, the project will deploy a dedicated combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant alongside solar, wind, and battery storage:
- CCGT high-efficiency turbines: Two 500 MW units (60–62 percent thermal efficiency), black-start capable, fast ramp rates of 10 MW/min.
- On-site renewables: 1 GW PV array, 1.5 GW wind farm with 2 GWh Li-ion battery storage sized for up to four hours of full output.
- Cooling systems: Air-cooled chillers to maintain a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) target of ≤1.15, leveraging Wyoming’s low ambient temperatures.
“Our hybrid model ensures N-1 redundancy and optimizes dispatch between gas and renewables, while keeping PUE in the top decile of modern hyperscale data centers,” said an unnamed Crusoe engineering lead.
Grid Integration and Regulatory Challenges
Despite self-generation, the development must interconnect to the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) transmission network for ancillary services and emergency support. Regulators at the Wyoming Public Service Commission and FERC require a comprehensive System Impact Study, addressing:
- Contingency analysis: N-1 and N-2 fault tolerance on 230 kV and 345 kV lines.
- Voltage stability: Reactive power compensation to maintain ±5 percent voltage swings under full dispatch.
- Protection coordination: High-speed relays and synchrophasor monitoring to detect transient events within 50 ms.
Wyoming’s interconnection queue currently holds 45 projects; this proposal is position #12, with final approvals expected by Q2 2026.
Energy Mix and Decarbonization Implications
Wyoming’s current generation mix is ~69 percent coal, 26 percent natural gas, and 5 percent renewables. Even with 50 percent on-site green energy, the project risks locking in fossil fuel use for decades. The state has pledged 50 percent carbon-free power by 2030, but this development may accelerate investments in advanced nuclear, carbon capture, and grid-scale storage.
AI Hardware Efficiency and Future Trends
According to Dr. Lisa Fernandez, senior analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), “Next-generation AI accelerators—NVIDIA H100 GPUs, custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), and purpose-built AI ASICs—deliver up to 300 petaflops per megawatt, but overall facility demand still scales linearly with model size and data throughput.” The Cheyenne site will likely host clusters of high-density racks (50 kW per rack) using liquid-cooling and direct-to-chip heat exchangers to maximize efficiency.
Economic and Environmental Impact Analysis
- Job creation: 1,000 construction jobs, 200 permanent operations roles.
- Local revenue: $150 million/year in taxes and land-lease payments.
- Emissions profile: Estimated 3 million metric tons CO₂e/year if gas turbines operate at 90 percent capacity.
Environmental groups caution that without carbon capture or offsets, the carbon intensity could rival that of Wyoming’s largest coal plants.
Stakeholder Perspectives and Tenant Speculation
Neither Tallgrass nor Crusoe have confirmed an anchor tenant, fueling speculation around OpenAI’s Stargate infrastructure or a hyperscaler like Microsoft Azure. Crusoe spokesperson Andrew Schmitt told reporters, “We are not at a stage to announce our tenant there.” OpenAI’s recent Abilene, Texas campus (1 GW) and 4.5 GW commitment with Oracle underscore the race for AI capacity.
Looking Ahead
As Wyoming navigates permitting, interconnection, and community engagement, the project could redefine the state’s role from net energy exporter to AI compute hub. Policymakers and utilities will need to balance economic gains against grid reliability and long-term decarbonization goals.