Data center firm Crusoe and power company Tallgrass have been granted permission to build a 1.8GW gas-powered data center campus in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The scheme, announced last year, will see Crusoe construct the data center campus, known as Project Jade, on land near Terry Ranch Road, in Laramie County, south of Cheyenne, near the border with Colorado.

Tallgrass will build the BFC Power and Cheyenne Power Hub adjacent to the data center site to provide power for the facility via natural gas turbines.

Both parts of the project were given the green light by officials in Laramie County at a meeting on Monday night. The energy infrastructure represents a $7 billion investment for Tallgrass, the company said, and the total project cost could reach $50 billion.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon welcomed news of the development and told DCD the state is ready to host more data center firms. Wyoming produces approximately 12x the power its citizens consume, from sources including coal, natural gas, and renewable energy, and much of this is currently exported to other states.

Gordon said some of this power could remain in Wyoming to support new digital infrastructure. “Data centers are a great use of our energy, a terrific opportunity to educate our workforce, and a fantastic addition to our tax base," Gordon said. "We have lots of space, and a great climate for cooling, so I think Wyoming is one of the best places in the country to build new data centers like this.”

Not everyone is as positive about the project. Speaking at Monday’s meeting, local rancher Michelle Jessica expressed concerns about its impact on the landscape. The site of the proposed data center is currently farmland.

“I have looked at pasture and cows for my entire life,” Jessica said, in comments reported by Oil City News. “To see this going in is tough – I don’t get to see the view. I get to see lights. I get to see dust. I get to see buildings.”

Residents also raised concerns about the impact of the development on the water supply in the area. Crusoe said the data center will use a closed-loop cooling system to keep water usage to a minimum.

The data center is being designed to scale to a capacity of up to 10GW, though the on-site power station will only generate 2.7GW, so this expansion would need to draw power from other sources.

It is hoped that the first data center buildings on the site will be electrified in 2027.

Crusoe has developed a 1.2GW data center campus in Abilene, Texas, for Oracle and OpenAI, which is already operational and due for completion later this year. The company said it has broken ground on another 1GW+ campus at a new site, but hasn’t shared details. Crusoe has previously detailed plans to develop natural gas-powered data centers in Alberta, Canada.

Founded in 2012, Blackstone-backed Tallgrass operates thousands of miles of natural gas and oil pipelines in the US. It is also developing a hydrogen plant and developing carbon capture projects.