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Data Center Registry

Joule Energy and Data Center Campus

Holden, Millard County, Utah

Under constructionMixed receptionAI confirmedRecord updated September 4, 2026

Joule Energy and Data Center Campus is a data center under construction in Holden, Utah (Millard County), operated by Joule Capital Partners. The public record puts it at announced October 2025, 4 GW planned, 4,000 acres. It has documented support and documented opposition on record.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Under construction

Operator
Joule Capital Partners
Facility type
Data center, AI use confirmed
Location
Holden, Millard County, UT
Coordinates
39.1072, -112.1650
Power capacity
4 GW planned
Land
4,000 acres
Investment
Not established from a public source
Announced
October 2025
Utility
PacifiCorp
Power source
On site gas
On site generation
1 GW
Cooling
Closed loop
Water use
Not established from a public source
Jobs
Not established from a public source
Public subsidy
Not established from a public source
Community reception
Mixed reception
Source confidence
Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

  1. November 2025
    Under construction
    Groundbreaking ceremony held November 6, 2025 outside Holden, UT; first power delivery targeted Q4 2026 Source: ABC4 Utah
  2. August 2025
    Proposed
    Millard County Commission approved project; site is conversion of family alfalfa farm

Opposition and litigation at this site

Partly. Both documented support and documented opposition to Joule Energy and Data Center Campus in Holden, Millard County, Utah appear in the record, with no clear majority position. The Millard County Commission approved the project (Aug 2025) and it is widely framed as a landmark rural-Utah investment (part of Gov.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: mixed reception means documented support and documented opposition both exist with no clear majority position on record.

The Millard County Commission approved the project (Aug 2025) and it is widely framed as a landmark rural-Utah investment (part of Gov. Cox's Operation Gigawatt). Local coverage also notes resident concern about the campus's scale, off-grid gas generation, and water; the founders' family holds the water rights. No organized opposition or litigation surfaced.

Source: Deseret News

Power and water

Phase 1: 1GW from Caterpillar gas generators with battery storage; potential scale to 4GW (some sources cite 12GW); nuclear exploration underway; adjacent Intermountain Power Project pipeline. Off-grid design.

Closed-loop direct-to-chip cooling saves millions of gallons vs evaporative; family water rights held by founders; no new water allocation required

Notes on the record

Founders Mark McDougal and David Gray converting family 4,000-acre alfalfa farm near Holden. Described by founders as largest private project in Utah history. Partnership with Caterpillar for generator sets; MOU with EnergySolutions for nuclear feasibility study. Part of Governor Cox's Operation Gigawatt initiative. Site at 4,800+ ft elevation for cooling efficiency. Coordinates approximate for Holden, Millard County. Subsidies checked at the municipal tier (2026-09-04): no site-level subsidy. Millard County commissioners are quoted on the record stating the county "did not give either development any special treatment or incentives", and no Millard County CRA/RDA public body is registered on the Utah Public Notice Website. Utah's EDTIF programme excludes data centres and the UCA 59-12-104 sales-tax exemption is self-executing, so no site-level award document exists to find.

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

  • Tax abatements or other public subsidy
  • Permanent jobs promised
Which document closes each gap
Tax abatements or other public subsidy
The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
Permanent jobs promised
The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Joule Energy and Data Center Campus in Holden?

Partly. Both documented support and documented opposition to Joule Energy and Data Center Campus in Holden, Millard County, Utah appear in the record, with no clear majority position. The Millard County Commission approved the project (Aug 2025) and it is widely framed as a landmark rural-Utah investment (part of Gov.

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Joule Energy and Data Center Campus?

No lawsuit over Joule Energy and Data Center Campus appears in the record we track as of September 4, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.

How much water does Joule Energy and Data Center Campus use?

No water withdrawal figure for Joule Energy and Data Center Campus is on record here. Cooling is recorded as closed_loop, which is the strongest available clue: closed loop and air cooled plant draw far less than evaporative cooling. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.

Who operates Joule Energy and Data Center Campus, and how big is it?

Joule Capital Partners is the operator on record. Capacity on record is 4 GW. The site is recorded at 4000 acres.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Joule Energy and Data Center Campus," updated September 4, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/joule-millard-county-ut.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.32.0 (September 7, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/joule-millard-county-ut, retrieved September 14, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

  1. 1.Groundbreaking held for Joule data center campus in Millard County · ABC4 Utah · retrieved July 6, 2026
  2. 2.Why this coming data center in Millard County is so unique · Deseret News · retrieved July 6, 2026
  3. 3.HIFLD Electric Retail Service Territories (ORNL/DOE-CESER, 2023-08 vintage) · Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) / HIFLD · retrieved July 23, 2026
  4. 4.Utah Business, Millard County commissioners on data-center incentives · Utah Business · retrieved September 4, 2026

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