Wyoming Data Center News

May 22, 2026

Enbridge, Meta to build 365 MW/200 MW solar/storage project

Enbridge has announced an expansion of its clean energy partnership with Meta to develop the first phase of the Cowboy Project in Wyoming.

Project details: The Wyoming phase will supply Meta data centers with 365 MW of solar and a 200 MW / 1,600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS); Tesla will provide the batteries, Enbridge expects to invest $1.2 billion, and the project is expected to enter service by the end of 2027. Power will be delivered to Meta through Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power under Wyoming’s Large Power Contract Service (LPCS) tariff.
Background and agreements: The announcement expands a partnership that now totals 1.6 GW of solar, wind and storage capacity developed with Meta; Enbridge and Meta previously developed the 600-MW Clear Fork Solar, 152-MW Easter Wind, and 300-MW Cone Wind projects. The LPCS tariff (developed with Microsoft and Black Hills Energy) is open to retail customers over 13 MW and requires customer-owned, behind-the-meter dispatchable generation onsite for reliability and backup; the BESS capacity is contracted under a long-term battery tolling agreement with Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power under the same tariff.

May 19, 2026

Three Rural Providers Band Together To Build 2,000-Mile Fiber Route

Dakota Carrier Network, Range and WIN Technology announced a joint $700 million investment to build the Heartland Fiber Project expanding high-capacity fiber across the American heartland.

Main announcement: The three providers committed $700 million to deploy the Heartland Fiber Project across Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois; construction begins this summer with deployment expected over the next one to two years and the network will include high-fiber-count infrastructure and additional conduit capacity to scale bandwidth for AI hyperscale data center demand.
Background and details: The project targets markets offering available power, land and lower cooling costs to attract hyperscalers; CEOs Rob Johnstone (Range) and Seth Arndorfer (Dakota Carrier Network) framed the deal as improving scale/resiliency and competitiveness for hyperscaler investment. The article also references Zayo’s recent acquisition of Crown Castle fiber assets as sector context.

May 11, 2026

Daily briefing: Why humans sleep so much less than other apes

The universities that manage the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have sued the Trump administration over plans to dismantle NCAR and transfer parts of it to other public and private institutions.

Main action: The universities are suing the Trump administration and challenging actions by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) that would hand off pieces of NCAR, including a supercomputing centre in Wyoming, as well as parts of its aeroplane fleet, space-weather studies and climate-modelling teams; the administration has characterized NCAR as a source of “climate alarmism”.
Background and context: The suit contends the NSF is moving too quickly and without authority; the report frames this as the start of a broader, ongoing legal and policy battle over NCAR’s future. Other items in the briefing include Elsevier joining a class-action suit against Meta over AI training on copyrighted works, a ransomware breach affecting thousands on the Canvas platform, and features on sleep and genomic regulatory research.

May 8, 2026

World-leading climate centre takes Trump administration to court

UCAR (the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) has sued the US government and asked a court to freeze plans to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Main action:UCAR (a coalition of around 130 universities) sued the government in March and on 3 April asked a US district court judge to freeze plans to transfer stewardship of NCAR’s supercomputing centre in Cheyenne, Wyoming; a court hearing took place on 7 May and Judge R. Brooke Jackson said he would issue a decision “as promptly as possible”.
Background and timeline: Documents show the White House budget office instructed the NSF in November to begin restructuring NCAR to align with Administration priorities; the NSF requested proposals and public comments (deadline 13 March) but told NCAR officials on 12 February that it had decided to transfer the supercomputing centre; UCAR argues the process is a “sham process” while the NSF says “a final decision has not been made to transfer stewardship.”

May 6, 2026

Power Drives the AI Data Center Boom, but Connectivity Cannot be Overlooked

An analysis argues that data center operators must prioritize power and optical connectivity for AI.

Main point: The piece highlights power and optical connectivity as essential prerequisites for AI, citing Omdia’s forecast that global IT load power capacity will reach 314 GW by 2030 and noting the emergence of the “scale across“ concept (coined in 2025 by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang) which requires 800 Gbps+, low-latency optical links to operate multi-site AI clusters and gigawatt-scale training campuses.
Background/details: The article is commentary/analysis (not a formal project announcement). It documents current industry pressures: typical large colocation sites support 50–100 MW, hyperscaler clusters are being planned at gigawatt scale, regional power supply wait times of 2–5 years, and a shift toward remote rural builds (examples: Lancaster PA; Memphis; Columbus, Ohio; rural Georgia; New Mexico; Wyoming) that require long-haul fiber links sometimes up to ~1,000 km. It references trade shows and forums including Metro Connect (Florida), Nvidia’s GTC, OFC, and the Optica Executive Forum.

May 5, 2026

New Data Center Developments: May 2026

Data Center Knowledge published a monthly roundup highlighting global data center project announcements, regulatory moves, and investment commitments driven by hyperscale AI demand.

Main announcement: The roundup catalogs multiple concrete project actions including Aligned Data Centers’ Project Caprock (540 MW, 313-acre campus in Hale County, Texas; initial delivery Q1 2027), EdgeCore’s completion of $1.5 billion in financing for two Northern Virginia hyperscale centers, and Yondr Group energizing a 27 MW Toronto facility expected in mid-2026. It also notes major investment commitments such as Digital Realty’s near S$7 billion Singapore plan (S$4.3 billion for new data centers) and AWS increasing planned investment in Mississippi to $25 billion.
Context and details: The piece outlines parallel regulatory updates in U.S. states (Maine vetoed a moratorium; Wisconsin revised We Energies tariff rules; North Carolina advanced legislation to require hyperscalers to cover infrastructure costs), workforce and partnership initiatives (Equinix Foundation with ODATA, Cisco, Vertiv launching training in Brazil, cohorts mid-2026), and other regional projects and financings (TikTok €1 billion Finland site; Ark Data Centres >€600 million Barcelona project; Equinix land purchases in South Africa totaling ZAR 890 million).

May 4, 2026

Bill to Increase Oversight of BEAD Broadband Grants Filed

Senate Majority Leader John Thune introduced legislation requiring federal officials to develop tools to track Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant recipients and to improve processing timelines for communications infrastructure applications.

Main action: The bill would require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information (Arielle Roth) to create tracking tools for BEAD grant recipients and to help executive agencies improve compliance with statutory deadlines for processing communications use applications.
Context and details: The measure was introduced in the Senate, referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, lists Sens. Ben Ray Luján and John Barrasso as co-sponsors, is in the early stages of the legislative process, and the text of the bill was not available at the time of publication.

May 1, 2026

Scenes from the great data center revolt

Andy Patrizio reports growing community and political pushback against multiple proposed data center projects across the United States.

Widespread local opposition and legal/political actions: Multiple communities have moved from passive concern to active resistance, including a recall of four Festus, Missouri city council members after approval of a $6 billion, 360-acre data center proposal; a citizens’ lawsuit in Hermantown, Minnesota to block a $1.5 billion Google “Project Loon” site; and a coalition in Pennsylvania seeking a three-year moratorium plus legislation (HB 2150, HB 1834, HB 2151) requiring reporting on energy/water use, banning cost-shifting to residents, and a model zoning ordinance.
Project specifics and mitigations for two large developments: In Box Elder County, Utah, a Kevin O’Leary–backed hyperscale campus on 40,000 acres plans an initial ~3 GW power need and up to 9 GW at full buildout with on-site power via the Ruby Pipeline (MIDA says “100% of the power will be generated off the Ruby Pipeline”); Wyoming’s Project Jade expanded from 1.8 GW to 2.7 GW (designer says theoretically up to 10 GW) and proposes closed-loop water cooling with initial fill equivalent to ~20 households and ongoing use equivalent to <3 households per year.

Apr 23, 2026

TerraPower’s Kemmerer 1 Enters Construction: Timeline of the Natrium Project’s Road to First Power

TerraPower has announced the official start of construction on Kemmerer Unit 1, its flagship Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor plant, on April 23, 2026.

Construction start and project scope: TerraPower announced the official start of construction for Kemmerer Unit 1 on April 23, 2026, following the NRC’s construction permit issued March 4, 2026; the plant is a 345‑MWe sodium‑cooled fast reactor with an integrated molten‑salt energy storage system that can boost output to 500 MW, with a 2030–2031 commercial operation target and an expected mobilization of roughly 1,600 workers and about 250 full‑time staff in operation.
Background, funding, and partners: The project was selected under DOE’s ARDP with up to $2 billion in cost‑shared federal support; Bechtel is the EPC contractor (transitioning from early works into field execution); other partners and stakeholders include GE Hitachi, PacifiCorp, a HALEU partnership with Framatome, and a data‑center‑focused agreement with Meta; the NRC permit establishes licensing firsts for a commercial non–light water reactor and uses the LMP risk‑informed approach.

Apr 22, 2026

Patented: Verizon’s Signal Spoof Detection at Base Stations and More North Texas Inventive Activity

Dallas-Fort Worth reported 171 patents granted for the week of March 24 and Verizon was granted a patent for detecting GPS/satellite signal spoofing at cellular base stations.

Main announcement: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (19100) 171 patents granted for the week of March 24, ranked No. 8 out of 250 U.S. metros; notable individual patent: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc. (U.S. Patent No. 12587857) for signal spoof detection at base stations using a comparison of a station’s known “true position” with a calculated “real time position” and generating an alert when the distance exceeds a threshold. Named inventors on the Verizon patent are Jerry Gamble, Jr. (Grapevine, TX) and Sumanth S. Mallya (Flower Mound, TX).
Background/details: The article is a patent roundup (Dallas Invents) listing utility and design patents connected to North Texas; it enumerates classification counts (G: Physics 53; H: Electricity 49; DESIGN: 31, etc.), top assignees (e.g., Texas Instruments Inc. 17; Traxxas L.P. 17; Samsung 8; Verizon 6) and highlights many granted patents across domains (telecom, AI/ML, medical devices, robotics, energy, networking). For each patent the report includes patent number, inventor(s), assignee, application file/date, and abstract (no speculative outcomes).

Wyoming Data Center Intel

Recent Wyoming data center news