Utah’s data center boom brings big promises and big questions for rural counties

A wave of new data cen­ter proposals is reshaping parts of rural Utah, and Millard County remains at the center of it. Back in August, we reported on a plan for a 20 million square foot campus outside Delta that developers said could deliver up to 40 billion dol­lars in economic impact. Since then, even larger projects have stepped forward, raising hopes for new revenue along with concerns about long term costs for residents.

Stock image, Southern Utah News.

Two more massive cam­puses have been announced in the same region. Joule Capital Partners and Caterpillar have broken ground near Holden on what they describe as a four-gigawatt artificial intelligence cam­pus with its own on-site generation. Creekstone Energy has promoted an even larger “Delta Gigasite” concept that could eventu­ally scale to ten gigawatts. Local officials describe the potential investment as un­precedented for rural Utah.

What communities are watching now is how these promised benefits will compare to the pressure the projects may place on local resources. Developers continue to say their facili­ties will use low water or water free cooling systems, although the details vary by company and technol­ogy. The region’s aquifers are already tightly man­aged, and residents want clearer information before construction moves too far ahead.

Power is a larger un­known. Several companies say they will generate much of their own electric­ity through natural gas or other on-site systems, but that still leaves the ques­tion of how much load will eventually be pushed onto the grid. State regulators have warned that large clusters of data centers can drive up wholesale power costs, which often work their way into residential bills over time. It is not yet clear whether Utah’s rural communities could see similar effects.

Local leaders say they welcome economic growth but want to avoid surprises. County planning commis­sions have been holding packed public hearings, and residents are asking for more transparency from developers. For Millard County and other rural areas now targeted by the data center industry, the next year will show whether the benefits outweigh the tradeoffs.