Utah’s proposed Stratos hyperscale data center project is unusual for a reason rarely associated with AI computing facilities: its developers want it to look good.
The planned campus in Box Elder County, designed by architecture firm Gensler for O’Leary Digital, departs from the bunker-like appearance typical of large-scale data centers. Early renderings show pale-toned buildings with recessed glass entrances, layered horizontal facades, deep overhangs, and landscaped buffers intended to soften the project’s presence in Utah’s western desert.
If completed as planned, the Stratos project will be immense. It would include 60 data center buildings spread across part of a 40,000-acre development area in Hansel Valley, northwest of the Great Salt Lake. The complex could require between 7.5 and 9 gigawatts of power, placing it among the world’s largest AI-oriented data center campuses.
Water Use and Heat Generation Concerns
The project’s refined architecture has not quieted the criticism from scientists, environmental advocates, and local residents concerned about the impact of hyperscale computing infrastructure in an already stressed ecosystem. Much of the opposition centers on water use and heat generation near the shrinking Great Salt Lake, with critics arguing the project’s environmental footprint could be massive.
Developers, in contrast, say the campus will rely on closed-loop cooling systems designed to minimize water consumption. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has also called for public water reporting requirements and protections ensuring the project does not reduce flows to the Great Salt Lake.
However, Robert Davies, a physics professor at Utah State University, has warned that the sheer thermal output of the project could significantly alter local climate conditions. His preliminary analysis estimates that the facility could release an additional 7 to 8 gigawatts of waste heat into the surrounding environment once operational.
Davies argues that concentrating that level of heat in Hansel Valley could raise nighttime temperatures substantially, intensify evaporation, and disrupt wildlife and vegetation patterns near the lake basin. Other researchers reviewing the estimates have warned that the project could worsen dust and air-quality problems tied to the Great Salt Lake’s ongoing decline.
Energy sourcing has also become a flashpoint, as it has been in local pushback against data centers across the US. Early discussions around the project referenced potential reliance on natural gas infrastructure, including the Ruby Pipeline that crosses the region. In response to criticism, developers and state officials have since emphasized a broader mix of energy sources, including renewables and battery storage, and possibly future nuclear generation.
The controversy also includes questions about governance and oversight. Unlike many large developments, Stratos is advancing through Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), which says the project could support infrastructure and economic development tied to Utah’s defense and military ecosystem, including Hill Air Force Base.
Before construction can begin, several divisions of the state government need to evaluate the project, including the Division of Air Quality and the Division of Wildlife Resources.
While that proceeds, the project seems locked in controversy, with supporters touting an economic and technological investment designed with unusual architectural care, and opponents digging in against an industrial-scale experiment whose environmental consequences remain largely unknown.
