Data centres are giant warehouses full of countless tiny computer chips (Picture: Getty/Metro)
What could be one of the world’s largest data centres – the warehouses that power AI – could dump 23 atomic bombs’ worth of energy per day.
The 40,000-acre Stratos Project Area,which would be kept ticking by a gas power plant,was approved by Box Elder County in Utah this month.
It will eventually gobble up about 9GW of power every single day – the UK generated 22.7GW of power yesterday,according to the National Grid.
In other words,the $1 billion data centre will get hot. Seriously hot,Utah State University physics professor Dr Rob Davies told Metro.
He estimated that the proposed campus and its power plant could dump energy equivalent to 23 atomic bombs per day into Hansel Valley.
By atomic bombs – which release energy in a single flash – Dr Davies says this to help picture what a constant flow of heat in a basin amounts to.
If you need more analogies,it’s the equivalent of: ‘40,000 Walmart Supercenters,2-3 New York Cities and 13 Back To The Future DeLorean time machines.’
It could even raise local daytime temperatures by 1°C to 3°C and up to 6°C at night.
‘As proposed,this facility will be one of the largest single-point heat sources on the planet,’ Dr Davies says.
‘Unlike essentially everything else,where the waste heat is spread out over large regions – a hair dryer here,a light there,a car here,an aeroplane there – the Stratos project is highly concentrated.
‘The power plant produces huge amounts of waste heat just in generating the power for the data centre,then the data centre uses that energy,which immediately turns to waste heat.’
A data centre owned by Amazon Web Services in Pennsylvania (Picture: AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
Data centres are made up of computers packed with 100,000 little silicon chips,once used for video games,called GPUs.
When wired together,these chips can store,process and run AI systems.
But these supercomputers require colossal amounts of energy on top of millions of gallons of water per day for cooling systems.
Tech giants say investments in data centres will be worth it. AI will one day bring about the ‘singularity’,as one Google boss told Metro last week.
Locals,however,are concerned about data centre energy usage.
When Utah officials approved the site on May 4,hundreds of protesters flooded the Box Elder County Fairgrounds.
Construction for the data centre has yet to be approved (Picture: Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
Hundreds of locals have protested against the proposed site (Picture: Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
County Commissioner Boyd Bingham told them: ‘For Hell’s sake,grow up.’
Kevin O’Leary,a venture capitalist among the project’s backers,has claimed the protesters aren’t locals and were paid to object.
‘I don’t know [by] who,’ he said. ‘They’re being bused in.’
Campaigners have since filed an application challenging the approval.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYhmStFlKgK/?img_index=1
The Stratos Project’s ‘plain-language’ website says that the facility will consume ‘more than twice what the entire state of Utah currently uses’.
It adds that the location – in the middle of the Utah desert near Snowville – was ‘deliberately’ chosen to reduce noise,heat and light pollution.
The website details how the ‘giga-centre’ will cough out carbon dioxide,a planet-warming gas caused by burning fossil fuels.
An impact analysis says Stratos is expected to raise the state’s climate change pollution by about 50%
This is something that worries Dr Davies,as environmentalists warn it could imperil the Great Salt Lake,including a rare migratory bird habitat.
‘The Great Salt Lake system is an economic,ecological and cultural bedrock of the region,’ Dr Davies adds.
An overview of the data centre and other facilities (Picture: O’Leary Digital)
Data centres require huge amounts of water to stop the chips from frying (Picture: Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
‘The Stratos project is an additional stressor – almost certainly a large stressor – on a system already in collapse.’
O’Leary recently said on X: ‘We’re not gonna drain the Great Salt Lake. That’s ridiculous. We are gonna create incremental jobs.’
We're not gonna drain the Great Salt Lake. That's ridiculous. We are gonna create incremental jobs. This is not gonna destroy air quality because we don't have the option to do that. That's controlled both state and federally,and we don't want to do that. That's not what we… pic.twitter.com/banDeAQROr
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) May 8,2026
Developers O’Leary Digital say the site is ‘built clean’ and will include measures to protect the environment.
Stratos and O’Leary Digital say that the electricity demand won’t raise energy bills,while the governor’s office says it won’t overwhelm the grid.
The Stratos development won’t be built anytime soon. It could take two years to be approved by Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality.
Dr Davies feels that the push for data centres is being supported by wealthy backers or politicians with ‘financial interests’.
‘Public trust has been eroded,and is unlikely to be restored unless a genuine,transparent,independent assessment is undertaken,’ he adds.
The Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA),a state agency overseeing the project,stressed to Metro that the site won’t inhale 9GW of energy from the get-go.
‘The 9GW figure represents an anticipated full build-out target. The first phase of construction will be a fraction of that capacity,and reaching the projected full scale will take many years of phased construction,regulatory review,and infrastructure development,’ the agency said.
‘The “23 atom bombs per day” energy calculation that has appeared in recent coverage applies the full build-out projection as if it were today’s project,when in reality the early-phase thermal load will be roughly an order of magnitude smaller.’
Box Elder County has been approached for comment.
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