Microsoft Announces Plans For Major Cheyenne Data Center Expansion

Microsoft has announced plans to purchase 3,200 acres in Cheyenne for a data center expansion project.

In a news release, the company said the purchase will include two parcels "approximately 200 acres located in Bison Business park on Wapiti Trail east of S Greeley Highway, and 3,000 acres in Southeast Cheyenne, adjacent to the 200-acre parcel accessible through Wapiti Trail, both located southeast of downtown Cheyenne."

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The release says the purchase will be the first step in a multiyear planning ad development process which will include several public hearings.

Microsoft Addresses Concerns About Electricity, Water Consumption

The release says the company will pay it's way to prevent an increase in electric rates. with through a partnership with Black Hills Energy in which "power acquisition is guided by the Large Power Contract Service (LPCS) tariff. The tariff requires Microsoft to directly pay for all the infrastructure upgrades and power procured by the utility necessary to serve its load."

In regard to water consumption, the company says it will actually replenish more water than it uses: "the chips housed within a datacenter produce heat. Microsoft’s existing facilities in Wyoming leverage direct evaporative cooling to cool those chips. This design uses water for cooling less than 10% of the year, with the latest datacenter designs going even further, in some cases eliminating the need for ongoing access to water for cooling after an initial fill. At the same time, Microsoft will continue to work to replenish water in the Mississippi-Missouri and Colorado River Basins."

The company says the project will create thousands of jobs during the construction phase and hundreds more once the expansion is final.

“Since the development of our first datacenter in 2012, Microsoft has been working to strengthen, not strain, the community of Cheyenne,” said Bowen Wallace, Corporate Vice President, Datacenters-Americas Region, Microsoft. “We’re excited to continue our growth in the state bringing more investment, opportunity and tax revenue to the community we’ve been a part of for more than 14 years.”

You can read the news release here.