Skeptics of the proposed hyperscale data center in Box Elder County are sweating about a lot more than its energy demands and potential toll on water supplies.
One small correction. You switched units. You started with Watt-hours (kWh, energy) and then switched to Watts (GW, power). With the right units, it’s even more dramatic.
There are an average of about 730 hours in a month. If a home consumes 1000 kWh per month, that’s an average of 1.3 kW. If we divide 9 GW by 1.3kW, we get 6.9 million.
So this data center will use the same amount of energy as over 6 million homes. For reference, Utah has a population of 3.5 million (total people, not total number of homes).
Here’s another way of comparing the numbers. If this new data center uses 9 GW of power 24/7, that’s an about 6,500 GWh per month, or a little under 79,000 GWh per year.
In 2025, Utah produced a new record of over 35,000 GWh.
So this data center would more than triple the amount of energy produced in 2025.
One small correction. You switched units. You started with Watt-hours (kWh, energy) and then switched to Watts (GW, power). With the right units, it’s even more dramatic.
There are an average of about 730 hours in a month. If a home consumes 1000 kWh per month, that’s an average of 1.3 kW. If we divide 9 GW by 1.3kW, we get 6.9 million.
So this data center will use the same amount of energy as over 6 million homes. For reference, Utah has a population of 3.5 million (total people, not total number of homes).
Here’s another way of comparing the numbers. If this new data center uses 9 GW of power 24/7, that’s an about 6,500 GWh per month, or a little under 79,000 GWh per year.
In 2025, Utah produced a new record of over 35,000 GWh.
So this data center would more than triple the amount of energy produced in 2025.
Thank you for the correction!! Yeah, it’s basically really bad lol