Work underway near Williston on massive $1.9 billion cryptocurrency data center | State & Regional

Construction has already begun at the 77-acre site, and the facility is expected to use as much electricity as the output of a typical coal-fired power plant once it’s fully operational. A large inflatable dome will cover the construction area to allow work to occur during the winter.

The Atlas Power Data Center is slated to start mining cryptocurrency this spring, said Rick Tabish, president of FX Solutions. The company is building the $1.9 billion computing facility in several phases for operator Atlas Power. Both businesses are based in Montana.

The first 25 megawatts is expected to come online by mid-April, with up to 700 megawatts by the end of 2023.

“You have to get up and running very quickly,” Tabish said, adding that speed is critical to making the economics of a data center pan out as the cryptocurrency industry rapidly evolves.

FX Solutions and Atlas Power have worked with Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative to ensure the co-op’s transmission system can accommodate the massive power load needed to support the data center.

Transactions of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are recorded in ledgers known as blockchains. Computers lend processing power to validate the transactions, and they are rewarded with more cryptocurrency.

The process is energy-intensive, and the computers give off a lot of heat. Data centers typically rely on fans to cool down the servers so the computers can operate effectively. North Dakota’s bitterly cold winters make the state attractive to the cryptocurrency industry, and utilities and community leaders across the state are fielding inquiries from numerous data center developers wanting to set up shop.

The Atlas Power project would be the largest data center in the state, and it could also serve needs beyond cryptocurrency. Data centers are also used for cloud storage and processing banks’ financial transactions, for example.

Proper air flow through the Atlas Power buildings will be key to the operation, Tabish said.

“Everything we do is highly engineered,” he said.

A substation near the site is already in place to supply electricity.

The Bakken oil boom ushered in numerous industrial facilities across the western part of the state that need electricity. Basin Electric Power Cooperative has invested $1 billion over the past decade to support power generation and transmission in the area, said Dale Haugen, general manager at Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative. 

“That is really what has enabled us to serve the Atlas Power Data Center,” he said.

The facility is expected to create 100 construction jobs and 30 permanent jobs. Tabish said construction will involve as many as 60 local union electrical workers.

The fans used to cool data centers can generate a lot of noise, which can be a nuisance for residents nearby. Tabish said the noise created by the facility west of Williston will be “nothing obtrusive” and should not bother residents.

The project site is near the intersection of U.S. Highways 2 and 85, a few miles west of Williston.

The data center has not received any state aid to locate in North Dakota, but it is expected to make use of a sales tax exemption allowed by state law, said Mike Nowatzki, a spokesperson for the governor’s office.

This isn’t Tabish’s first time doing business in North Dakota.

He has worked in the state’s oil industry on saltwater cleanup and waste disposal, and he describes Williston as a “really progressive community.”

“When it’s 20 below zero and (an oil company) wants something done, you don’t tell them, ‘Hey let’s wait for it to warm up.’ You just go do it,” he said. “That’s a really good application for what we’re doing right now.”

Tabish’s FX Solutions is based in Missoula, Montana. He’s become an entrepreneur since he was released from prison in 2010 after being convicted, then later acquitted in a high-profile murder case involving the death of casino heir Ted Binion in Nevada.

Tabish and Atlas Power founder Kevin Washington became friends as children. Washington’s father is Montana billionaire industrialist Dennis Washington.

Atlas Power operates another large data center in Butte, Montana.

Both Tabish and Kevin Washington — along with Gov. Doug Burgum — spoke about the Williston data center Wednesday at an event inside Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative headquarters.

Washington said his vision is to “create the largest cryptocurrency company in the world with a carbon-neutral footprint.”

Burgum touted the state’s carbon capture and storage efforts in his remarks. The state has recently permitted the first two of what are expected to be many projects in North Dakota that aim to capture carbon emissions from industrial facilities and store them in rocks deep underground. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

The governor, a former software executive, said blockchain technology will “have a big future in our state.” He envisions it will increasingly be used for computer processing needed for artificial intelligence applications.

The Atlas Power project will provide Williston with jobs that can weather the boom-bust cycle of the oil patch, Burgum said.

“Williston is at the epicenter of understanding what it’s like to be whipsawed by prices that we don’t control,” he said. “This project is not dependent on the price of oil, and these jobs won’t be dependent on it.”