EVANSTON — A $10 billion data center will soon be built east of Evanston on 640 acres of ranch land due to the effort and foresight of Trenton Thornock, founder and CEO of the corporation Prometheus Hyperscale. The company announced last week that Bernard Looney, former CEO of BP, will chair its board of directors.

“The predictions are that the need for huge data centers in the U.S. will increase by 33% a year,” Thornock said. “I want Evanston to reap the benefits of having a sustainable data center located here.”

As stated on its website, “The mission of Prometheus Hyperscale is to design and operate the most advanced, sustainable data centers to support the rapid growth in AI, big data and cloud computing, while addressing the critical environmental challenges that the industry faces today. Prometheus Hyperscale is at the forefront of the next technological revolution, building the essential infrastructure that will power the AI-driven world of tomorrow. Today, in the vast and rugged landscapes of Wyoming and beyond, we are forging a new path to tackle the existential challenge of our time: climate change.”

Thornock said, “Prometheus Hyperscale is redefining data center infrastructure. Our innovative approach, which combines cutting-edge technology with a commitment to sustainability, positions us at the forefront of the industry.’’

Thornock is a member of a sixth-generation ranching family whose large ranch encompasses land in Uinta and Lincoln counties, and Rich County, Utah. His brother, Brady, and their mother now manage the ranch. Thornock attended school at Rich High in Randolph, Utah, and went on to graduate from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees and CPA certification.

Thornock’s professional background includes serving on the board of directors of Scientific Drilling and Applied Technologies and he chairs the Audit Committee. He has worked as chief financial officer for various large corporations and has traveled across the world. Thornock is also an owner of Hyperfuels, the first e-commerce racing fuels retailer and U.S. distributor of TOTAL racing lubricants. He is based in Houston, Texas.

Thornock was the founder and managing member of Wyoming Hyperscale White Box, which has now merged with Prometheus Hyperscale, and has expanded from a 120 megawatt project to a 1 gigawatt project. Thornock said Prometheus is primarily funded by high network companies and individuals, private funds and family offices. They have around 75 consultants working on the project.

Thornock is CEO of Prometheus Hyperscale and Trevor Neilson, a leading climate-tech CEO and energy transition investor joins as president. Looney, the former chief executive with BP, one of the world’s largest energy companies, has been brought on as chair of the data center. He will be helping to get customers, investors and developing strategy. Thornock’s partner, John Gross, is an expert with 16 years’ experience with liquid-cooled data centers.

Thornock said they chose the name Prometheus because the original Greek meaning for the word is “foresight.” This fits, he said, as the company has a strong focus on green energy, leading by example and being the blueprint for the future of digital infrastructure.

The Evanston project is strategically located to use Wyoming’s renewable energy resources and favorable climate. Thornock said they have reached an agreement with Rocky Mountain Power to use the excess energy from the wind turbines located near Evanston and in return Prometheus will pay for the $10 million transition line from the wind turbines to the data center campus.

The data center campus lies near a natural gas pipeline so gas will also be used for energy. The center’s use of natural gas and wind energy will not impact local residents’ energy bills at all, Thornock said. There is also a possibility that solar and nuclear energy will be used in the future.

“No one’s energy bills will go up because of us,” Thornock said. “They may even go down.”

They use fluids in the cooling process but will consume zero water as it will be recycled back to its source. They have gained EPA permits to go down about 1,000 feet to an aquifer, then the water will be put through a heat exchanger, the heat will be sent through a pipeline down to the farm area, and the water will be pumped back into the aquifer which is deep and way below what would be used for drinking water or agricultural needs. The excess heat that comes off the computer chips will be used to heat greenhouses built on the campus to grow vegetables and to house a live shrimp farm, and he said the shrimp will be sold locally.

“A typical data center will use around a million gallons of water a day. We wanted to avoid that,” Thornock said. “Other businesses have been using a similar cooling system for 50 years but we will be the first large data center facility to use this.”

A data center needs long-haul fiber to operate. The existing fiber optic line follows the railroad, as the fiber companies then had to deal with only one landowner across most of the U.S. At the Altamont railroad tunnel, which is on Thornock ranch land, the fiber operators had to cut and splice the fiber to go over the tunnel so they ended up with a long-haul fiber connection which will provide the data center with the ability to make a connection in 16,000 of a second.

“Our data center will be able to provide precision high speed and high-capacity connections from east to west, across the United States,” Thornock said. “AI may or may not be part of our data center, which is set up for hosting high capacity and high-performance computer applications. We want to be as sustainable as possible. I think the most benefit from AI will be in health care.”

Thornock has been meeting with county officials for some time and received a conditional use permit in 2021. County planner Gary Welling said the county commission also approved adopting an old oil field road near the site as a county road for Prometheus Hyperscale to use.

The site has been cleared for the center and the pad for the greenhouses is completed. Thornock said they plan to start construction on the facility in January 2025. They have hired a contractor from Pinedale and will hire 1,500 workers, sub-contractors, electricians and other employees. They want to hire as many Wyoming workers as possible. They plan for 18 months of construction with operations slated to begin in 2026.

Thornock said the first campus site will have approximately 80 employees on site for maintenance, operation and security and they will pay double the prevailing wages in the county. Eventually, there are plans for an office in Evanston as they want to keep the company headquarters in Wyoming.

“The data center will be quiet and isolated; most people won’t even know it is there,” Thornock said. “Bringing this facility to Evanston will generate huge benefits in property taxes for the county and the main beneficiaries will be public services. It is my way of giving back to the community.”