The mega-scale ones almost all have power as part of the ramp-up process. They are also a massive tax benefit.
Looking at the controversial Stratos data center in Box Elder County:
Box Elder County baseline (before Stratos):
2026 General Fund revenue: $36.1M
2026 General Fund tax revenue: $21.1M
2026 Municipal Service Fund: $18.8M
Stratos (Phase 1):
Power: 3 GW
Revenue expected: $30M/year
Revenue as % of existing county tax rev: 142%
Stratos (Full Buildout):
Power: ~9 GW
Revenue expected: $108M/year
Revenue as % of existing county tax rev: 512%
Planned power details:
- Box Elder says it will use natural gas from the nearby Ruby Pipeline.
- MIDA describes it as dedicated on-site generation designed to limit demand
on the existing grid.
- The project ramps from ~3 GW in Phase 1 to ~9 GW at full buildout.
I'll acknowledge that the MIDA structure is not a normal county tax bill and comes with explicit energy-rate discounts, but given that the county could hit 500%+ of its previous tax revenue, I think that's a very easy deal for the county to make.
Data sourced from: https://www.midaut.org/stratos
