The plan for the campus proposed in Box Elder County isn’t final yet. However, O’Leary Digital, the developer of the project, already has a vision of full glass and wooden facades and buildings forming perfect rectangles in front of Utah’s iconic mountains.
O’Leary Digital — chaired by principal backer and celebrity “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful” — published initial renderings on what the data center project could look like, including a campus with “a cluster of ten 100MW data center buildings,” in addition to another 100 megawatt data center with “thoughtfully-designed buildings.”
The map also features a site to generate 1 gigawatt of natural gas power paired with battery storage systems, a 3,000-acre solar array that’s aimed to produce 500 megawatts of electricity.
There’s also a small “Downtown Wonder Valley” space, which developers describe as “a mixed-use innovation district that supports the Valley’s workforce, strengthens regional opportunity and offers shared amenities for the Valley and surrounding community.”
However, all of these images and plans are still premature and need to receive many nods before a building permit is issued.
The full project area takes up about 40,000 acres of land in unincorporated Box Elder County split into three different sites. According to a Box Elder County news release, one is intended to host a data center and an energy plant capable of generating 7.5 to 9 gigawatts of power — about double what the entire state consumes.
The two other sites are planned for uses that “may include manufacturing, retail, restaurants, hotels, and public works infrastructure.” Those development areas are included in an independent state authority’s expectations to create 2,000 jobs within the project area.
Read the full report at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
