energy

A proposed ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts like electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater and agricultural impacts, and land value.

Utilities across the West are launching a new regional energy market designed to help them buy and share power a full day before it’s needed — an effort supporters say could lower costs, improve reliability and make it easier to move renewable energy across state lines.

They’ll notify one another when well projects are proposed within a mile of the shared state border. And the model may expand to neighboring states.

"Fuel costs for gas-fired generation for the entire operational length of the project need to be clearly factored into the decision process," one co-author said.

The U.S. already has about 3,000 data centers — and that number is expected to grow quickly in the coming years. A new report finds much of that growth is shifting away from cities and into rural areas, including in the Mountain West.

The U.S. Department of Energy claims the new metal dome located at Idaho National Lab is a “first-of-its-kind-facility.” It will be used to test private developers’ microreactors.

Non-residential construction jobs are up, partly due to new data centers. But the number of people opting to enter the workforce is decreasing.

Topics included how to transition off of coal and how to respond to the AI data center boom.

Federal and Wyoming leaders look to widen tap from Meta and Microsoft.

Kootenai County, Idaho paused data center development to pass regulations to protect water resources and require a public process.