In Utah’s rural Millard County, Kalen Taylor is bracing for the day when the farmland across the street from his home transforms into a sprawling data center complex.
The initial plans for Joule Capital Partners’ 4,000-acre data center site call for six buildings, each powered by 69 Caterpillar natural gas-powered generators to meet the intensive energy demands. Construction is slated to begin this spring. Once built, Taylor will likely hear the equivalent of more than 400 semi-trucks idling in his neighborhood around the clock, producing emissions year-round.
“I just would rather look out my back door and see cornfields than a data center,” Taylor said. “I like the sound of crops rustling in the wind, not the hum of a [Caterpillar] generator making power.”
Farther north, officials in the city of Eagle Mountain have turned to massive data centers operated by tech giants like Meta to provide much-needed tax revenue. But even in this urban, rapidly growing part of the state, developers struggle to secure the powe... Read more
