Box Elder County commissioners are set to vote Monday, April 27, on a consent agreement that could clear the runway for a massive hyperscale data center and on-site power campus in northern Utah. The proposal, pitched as a national-security and economic-development play, would turn tens of thousands of acres into compute infrastructure and major energy generation. In the past week, residents have been pressing officials on water use, tax breaks, and how quickly the deal has moved through the pipeline.
State Authority Clears the Project
The Military Installation Development Authority voted this month to approve a development agreement for the Stratos project, naming O'Leary Digital as the lead developer for a "Wonder Valley" branded campus that would cover roughly 40,000 acres of private land and about 1,200 acres of military and state-owned property, according to KPCW. MIDA officials pitched the deal as a way to lure hyperscale tenants and support Pentagon and National Guard operations, while layering in incentives to keep the site competitive. Board members were told it would be the authority's largest project area yet, although a firm construction schedule has not been made public.
The Scale: 3 Gigawatts Now, 9 at Full Buildout
Presentations and reporting indicate that Phase 1 would generate about 3 gigawatts of on-site power, with the full campus potentially topping out around 9 gigawatts, a level industry coverage has noted would exceed Utah’s current average electricity use. As described to state officials, the campus would produce its own power through a planned natural-gas connection to an interstate pipeline and could, developers say, even send surplus electricity back to the grid, according to Tom's Hardware. That kind of off-grid generation model mirrors other recent AI-era campuses that are building dedicated power systems rather than waiting in line for traditional utility upgrades.
Locals Say They Were Shut Out
Box Elder residents who turned out at recent meetings raised alarms about water impacts, noise, and a perceived lack of transparency, and questioned whether the touted local benefits will ever trickle down. The county agenda pegs an Interlocal Agreement and a consent resolution tied to MIDA's Stratos project area as action items for the commission, and The Salt Lake Tribune reports commissioners planned to take up the matter without allowing on-the-record public comment on the development itself. With a state-level authority greasing the skids and a compressed local review window, some neighbors say they are scrambling just to understand what is coming.
What Comes Next
If the commission signs off on the interlocal agreement, developers would be cleared to move ahead with site work and energy contracts, although no hyperscaler tenant has been publicly announced, and all timelines remain educated guesses. MIDA and project backers say the initial phase alone could generate about $30 million a year for Box Elder County and eventually more than $100 million annually, along with construction and operations jobs, according to reporting by KPCW. County officials have not said whether they plan to hold additional hearings or require more environmental review beyond what MIDA has already negotiated with the developer.
