Cheyenne is becoming a hub for data centers in the state. Microsoft and Meta have a presence in the capital. And RelatedDigital recently entered the scene. The Cheyenne mayor, Gov. Gordon and the CEO of RelatedDigital put shovels in the ground, celebrating the announcement of a $1.2 billion data center, expected to be completed by late 2026. CoreWeave, an AI and cloud computing company, will be the first customer who will use the center’s services. But many Cheyenne residents are wondering how it will impact water, energy and air pollution in the area. Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger spoke to Colin Sullivan, the senior vice president of RelatedDigital.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jordan Uplinger: Your company's using something called self-contained cooling systems, which your company claims will use only six bathrooms’ worth of water. Can you clarify what a self-contained cooling system is?
Colin Sullivan: We understood the value of local natural resources in Wyoming. So we're doing something different, right? We're using high-efficiency, air-cooled chillers with a closed-loop system. There is nominal water consumption on a daily basis that is mainly for what we call domestic uses. So, restrooms, pantries, sinks, and some humidity control. And, given the employees that we're gonna have in this first building in Cheyenne, we kind of equate this to, roughly, like a 40-person office. The water usage is pretty minimal, which drives efficiencies and also preserves natural resources that are obviously of great importance to local residents.
JU: I imagine the trade-off is the fans have to spin a little bit more. There's a lot more energy going into a cooling system than there is into a water system.
CS: Yeah, I think high level, that's probably a fair characterization. There might be a little bit more energy consumed with the facility. I think one thing that is important to know, right, is that this technology, one, it's very proven, it's been around for decades and it's really becoming common practice within the data center industry. And also from an electricity tax revenue standpoint are far beneficial for the local community and the state using this air-cooled closed-loop system.
JU: On the energy front, your goal right now is to supply Coreeave with 88 megawatts of power. Eventually scale that up to 302 megawatts. As far as your data center goes, RelatedDigital, can you describe the primary source of power for your data center?
CS: Our power is going to be from the grid. We are not doing behind-the-meter generation. Black Hills Energy is our utility provider, as they are for Cheyenne. Obviously, there's no denying that data centers are large consumers of power. But what Black Hills has done [is] they have regulated a frankly, pretty innovative large power contract service tariffs, which is specific for large consumers of power. This tariff enables them to serve data centers with no cost impact to local retail customers.
JU: There was an air quality application for 51 diesel-fired emergency engines. Could you clarify if those are primarily going to be used as just backup generators, emergency scenarios, or if they're going to be used to kind of offset electricity costs and use of the grid they're connected to?
CS: In our case, the generators are purely for backup purposes. We are not necessarily in the business of hedging electricity prices and using generators to offset when rates are higher. So all of our power will be coming from Black Hills, from the grid. It's only in the event that the grid is unable to provide power to the site that we would look to turn on those generators in an emergency scenario. We've worked closely with the Department of Environmental Quality to ensure that those generators are in compliance with all the state provisions governing the use of that type of equipment.
JU: Initially, your company projects 700 construction jobs and 40 permanent jobs. Data centers are created to be somewhat sterile, clean, calm environments, from my understanding. So it makes sense that you don't want thousands of people running through the halls of a data center, but 40 people, is that the minimum number needed to successfully run a data center?
CS: So a lot of the jobs are well-paying engineering and technical roles, and then you'll also have some people who are staffed more on the administrative side to help the building run and other functions like accounting and finance and whatnot. So it's less about specific cost savings. It's really more about what is going to make this building run and perform as efficiently and as optimally as possible.
JU: Are there incentives or conditions Wyoming offers, or perhaps offered, your company that attracted you to make a 15-plus year investment like this?
CS: The only incentive that we have received or are receiving currently is that Wyoming, since I believe about 2012, if not earlier, has a sales tax exemption applied to data center equipment. And that's something that I would say probably over 30 states have at this point. And it is an incredible tool that makes it easier for a lot of these customers or developers to enter into a new market and contribute to the local economy. I think if you look at states that do not have that exemption, there are far fewer data centers, if any, that have been built in those jurisdictions.
JU: So when you build a data center like this and you think 20 years down the road, what outcome would get, let's just say, the people here in Cheyenne to say, “Oh yeah, that data center was worth the investment.”
CS: So I think it's less about what is exactly coming out of a data center itself [as] it is the investment that we're making, that CoreWeave is making, that other customers, already in Cheyenne, are making in the local community. This is an incredible new base of revenue for local jurisdictions and the state as a whole, right? Whether it is another company that has improved a road in the Cheyenne Business Parkway, or completed part of the Greenway, right? Or in our case, who has provided a donation to build more affordable housing in Cheyenne, when we specifically heard that there's a need and a dire shortage in Cheyenne for affordable homes. So I think you have the tax revenue, which is the more clear economic component, but then you have a little bit of those more intangible elements that are perhaps harder to quantify, but maybe you can qualify them a bit, that really improves a community and I think hopefully demonstrates to a community that these corporations, as big as they are, care about the local environment and the growth of those local communities.
JU: I think if I was to say that, “Well, a data center kind of operates and then puts money back into the community, that's the benefit.” People might say, “Well, the state of Wyoming has money. The federal government has money. We could have paid for this ourselves. Why do we need a company to come in and pay for them?” So while the benefits might be positive, the state is getting money, the city is getting money. I think people still might just want to know what will the data center produce that Wyoming can say, you know, made here at home?
CS: It's a good question. In some ways, it's a little less tangible, but at the end of the day, a data center it's full of computers and servers. They process and store data that you and I and your listeners, and frankly, everyone with a TV or a computer or a smartphone ultimately use. So our society just becomes so much more technologically connected and has a growing reliance on information, right? That's where these data centers really come into play. I think one way to look at it is, by having data centers in your community, the data centers are producing the ability for individual companies and individuals themselves to be connected, to get access to information on their phone more clearly or faster than they otherwise would. So I think that's kind of one way to sort of conceptualize what a data center is actually doing.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
