Joule Capital Partners<\/a> held the event just outside the town of Holden for the start of its new Joule Energy and Data Center Campus.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a large-scale facility designed to support artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.<\/p>\n
The company stated the project represents a significant investment in Utah\u2019s energy and technology future, which could bring in new jobs, training opportunities and economic growth to rural Utah.<\/p>\n
Unlike most data centers, which require large amounts of electricity from public utilities, Joule plans to produce its own power onsite rather than rely on the local power grid.<\/p>\n
Company leaders said this approach will prevent strain on existing energy infrastructure and shield residents from higher power costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really takes away from resources that local residents need and increases energy costs for everybody else,\u201d said Brock Andrus, co-CEO of Joule Capital Partners. \u201cSo we said, let\u2019s create our own power production plants here on this beautiful 4,000 acres.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company plans to use natural gas to power the first phase of the project, with future phases expected to expand energy capacity as demand for AI grows.<\/p>\n
Millard County Commissioner Bill Wright said the data center could help keep more young people in the county by providing high-paying technical jobs and new career paths.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to taking new technologies and really molding them together with what we\u2019re doing,\u201d said Wright, who hopes the company will partner with local schools to create job training and apprenticeships.<\/p>\n
Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said the project is the kind of development that can benefit rural communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese data centers are now air cooled. They\u2019re no longer water cooled, and so their water use drops down to minimal amounts. It\u2019s the type of project that will bring jobs to rural Utah,\u201d said Ferry.<\/p>\n
Company representatives said they hope to begin initial energy production by the end of 2026, acknowledging the timeline is ambitious but achievable.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s groundbreaking marks phase one, with additional phases planned over the coming years as AI technology evolves and data demands increase.<\/p>\n
For a community long rooted in agriculture, the project marks a shift toward a new kind of growth, one fueled by data and innovation rather than crops and livestock.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need some kind of growth to survive these days,\u201d said Commissioner Wright. \u201cWe like being in the middle of nowhere. We have traditions. We don\u2019t want to really change our traditions, but we are looking forward. My experience with Joule and where they\u2019re going is really a good and positive experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joule representatives said the demand for these types of data centers will only increase as artificial intelligence continues to grow.<\/p>\n
Andrus feels the time to prepare for that growth is now.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is a really special day not only for Joule, but for the community, the state, and frankly, for the United States,\u201d said Andrus. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to fall behind. We really can\u2019t. Not only as a state but as a country. It\u2019s too important and we are doing everything in our power here at Joule on this 4,000 acre site to unleash the power of energy so that we can ensure that we have sovereign safe AI models that ensures the safety and protection of the United States citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOLDEN, Millard County \u2013 A major technology and energy project is about to begin in Millard County. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,2976,28998,28997,99,2988,74,2987,2986],"class_list":["post-282607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-home","tag-ksltv-com","tag-ksltv-com-utah-news","tag-sports","tag-talk-and-community","tag-technology","tag-traffic","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}