Oct 16, 2026 · 11 min · 6 segments
There are new developments in the Stratos Data Center project. After several months of waiting, we're finally getting a look at the new water permit application just filed by Kevin O'Leary's company…
Greg SkordasHost
Holly RichardsonHost
Garna Mejia
... that kicked off, uh, uh, some of the anti-data center feeling, at least here in Utah.
After several months of waiting, we're finally getting a look at the new water permit application that was just filed by Kevin O'Leary's company.
And we're getting a close look because the application is nearly 200 pages long.
[laughs] Outlines many of the details we've been waiting for, like the number of data center buildings, the power source for the complex, the amount of water the project's expected to use.
So KSL's Garna Mejia spent a lot of yesterday digging through the permit, which, as we mentioned, includes hundreds of pages.
We've spent all afternoon going through these documents, and there still is just so much to understand and process here, but we are starting to gain a better understanding on the scope of this Stratos project.
Today, the Division of Water Rights tells us that they received the permit application for this project.
11 clusters of data center buildings and a 7.5 gigawatt generation facility that'll be comprised of 15 500 megawatt combined, uh, cycle natural gas power plants.
In their application, Kevin O'Leary's team said the project would require less water than historical agricultural use and could even result in more water reaching the Great Salt Lake.
But environmental scientist and executive director of Grow the Flow, Ben Abbott, who opposes the project, says he's concerned that they're overpromising.
The short and the long of it is they don't tell us how they are going to achieve power production of that magnitude with that little water.
This would be a water to power ratio that's 10 to 100 times better than the top performing facilities today.
That's if they're using the reciprocating gas engines.
If it's the combined cycle gas turbine, this just is, isn't in the realm of reality.
There's not an example anywhere on the planet.
Yeah, we reached out to Kevin O'Leary's team for a response to Abbott's concerns, and we'll keep you posted.
The Division of Water Rights says that the application will go through the same process as every other application.
... that kicked off, uh, uh, some of the anti-data center feeling, at least here in Utah.
After several months of waiting, we're finally getting a look at the new water permit application that was just filed by Kevin O'Leary's company.
And we're getting a close look because the application is nearly 200 pages long.
[laughs] Outlines many of the details we've been waiting for, like the number of data center buildings, the power source for the complex, the amount of water the project's expected to use.
So KSL's Garna Mejia spent a lot of yesterday digging through the permit, which, as we mentioned, includes hundreds of pages.
We've spent all afternoon going through these documents, and there still is just so much to understand and process here, but we are starting to gain a better understanding on the scope of this Stratos project.
Today, the Division of Water Rights tells us that they received the permit application for this project.
11 clusters of data center buildings and a 7.5 gigawatt generation facility that'll be comprised of 15 500 megawatt combined, uh, cycle natural gas power plants.
In their application, Kevin O'Leary's team said the project would require less water than historical agricultural use and could even result in more water reaching the Great Salt Lake.
But environmental scientist and executive director of Grow the Flow, Ben Abbott, who opposes the project, says he's concerned that they're overpromising.
The short and the long of it is they don't tell us how they are going to achieve power production of that magnitude with that little water.
This would be a water to power ratio that's 10 to 100 times better than the top performing facilities today.
That's if they're using the reciprocating gas engines.
If it's the combined cycle gas turbine, this just is, isn't in the realm of reality.
There's not an example anywhere on the planet.
Yeah, we reached out to Kevin O'Leary's team for a response to Abbott's concerns, and we'll keep you posted.
The Division of Water Rights says that the application will go through the same process as every other application.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
