Red Butte energy and data center campus (BrightNight)
Also called: Red Butte Data Center
BrightNight wants to build a 1.5 GW data center campus with solar, batteries and gas power in Iron County. Its application is on hold during the county's pause on data centers.
Where things stand: Applied May 4, 2026; deemed incomplete May 22 and on hold under the county's 180-day pause.
🕒 Latest update (May 26, 2026): Iron County adopted a 180-day pause on new data center applications; Red Butte is on hold.
What we know
- 📍 WhereAbout 20 miles from Cedar City, Unincorporated Iron County, Iron County
- 🏢 CompanyBrightNight
- 🌳 Size2,600 acres
- ⚡ Power it needs1,500 megawatts (about as much as 1,200,000 homes)
- 🔌 Where the power comes from300 MW solar, 300 MW batteries and 1.5 GW gas power on site (per the developer).
❓ Still unanswered
Nobody has answered these in public yet. Can you help find out?
- Will the county's new rules allow the project when the pause ends? 🙋 I'll find out
What happened so far
- May 4, 2026BrightNight filed its application with Iron County.
- May 22, 2026County found the application incomplete.
- May 26, 2026Iron County adopted a 180-day pause on new data center applications; Red Butte is on hold.
Local votes and rules
⏸️ Pause on new data centers
County commissioners passed an emergency 180-day pause on new applications for data centers, data center power plants and solar power plants (Ordinance 2026-13). It does not stop the Pronghorn 'Project Antelope' data center, whose application was already complete. It does pause BrightNight's Red Butte project. On August 10, 2026 the commission took up a change (Ordinance 2026-18) so the pause does not cover battery storage projects that already had a permit.
An aerial photo of the area.
Where this comes from
- Proposed Data Center Information · Iron County · 2026
- Red Butte · BrightNight · 2026
- AI campus proposed in Iron County could bring 500 jobs · Cedar City News · 2026
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