Caterpillar Providing 4 GW of CHP Power for Utah AI Data Center
On-site generation provider Caterpillar will supply prime combined heat, power (CHP) and a battery storage system dedicated to powering a massive future data center campus planned in central Utah.
Caterpillar and its dealership partner Wheeler Machinery have finalized an agreement with project developer Joule Capital Partners to supply 4 GW in power capacity for Joule’s High Performance Compute Data Center Campus. The data center developer hopes to launch its initial computing capacity in 2026.
The CHP and prime power package will include Caterpillar’s latest model G3520K generator sets and equipment to provide both electricity and capture waste heat to power and cool the high-density servers. In addition, the solution will include 1.1 GWh of grid-forming battery energy storage along with other backup power from a diversity of fuel sources, both interconnecting into the Intermountain West grid system and directly connected into the Joule Data Center Campus.
“This project represents the core of Joule’s mission—to deliver artificial intelligence (AI) ready compute capacity by pairing world-class data center campuses with reliable, on-demand power,” said David Gray, President of Joule Capital Partners, in a statement. “By combining Caterpillar’s advanced energy systems with Wheeler’s local expertise, we can bring gigawatt-scale capacity to market faster and more efficiently than ever before, ensuring our tenants have the power and reliability they need to thrive in the next generation of high-performance computing.”
The CHP, battery storage and distributed generation arrays will be enabled with control systems, switchgear and inverters. Caterpillar and Wheeler will assist with technical services including power system design, installation, integration, testing and commissioning.
“This project is a perfect example of how we can deliver fast, reliable power generation to our customers through integrated energy solutions," said Melissa Busen, senior vice president of Electric Power at Caterpillar Inc. “We are proud to work with Joule and Wheeler to help bring this project to life.”
The Joule Data Center will span 4,000 acres in central Utah 145 miles south of Salt Lake City and is being designed to handle artificial intelligence-driven data workloads. Forecasts from Goldman Sachs, Bloom Energy and Deloitte predict that the U.S. data center and AI boom will need perhaps 125 GW of new capacity in the coming decade.
Last month, news reports indicated that Joule Capital Ventures was seeking a rezoning of 4,000 acres in Millard County from agricultural to heavy industrial zoning. Millward County officials approved the rezoning earlier this week.
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Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor
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I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.
I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.
Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.