Creekstone Energy’s GIGAWATER project proposes capturing water vapour from natural gas to address water scarcity concerns at massive data centres, but independence validation is awaited amid public scrutiny over water use.
Creekstone Energy says it wants to do something data centres have rarely been known for: create water. The company, which is developing the Delta Gigasite in Millard County, has unveiled a plan called GIGAWATER that would capture water vapour from natural gas combustion and turn it into usable water, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. It has asked the University of Utah to test whether the idea can work at scale.
If the project performs as advertised, Creekstone says it could produce about 4,000 acre-feet of water a year, a volume that would make the site one of the most closely watched industrial experiments in the West. The company has framed the effort as part of a broader Project Oasis push at what it describes as the world’s largest data centre campus. The University of Utah’s role is to assess the technology’s feasibility, not to certify it as proven.
The pitch lands at a moment of deep public unease over how much water data centres use. A Ceres report cited by Tom’s Hardware said facilities in seven states alone withdraw trillions of gallons of freshwater each year, though the group emphasised that withdrawals are not the same as actual consumption. Other recent examples have only sharpened the scrutiny: a Bitcoin mining site in Oklahoma was condemned after a major leak, and a Denver data centre drew anger for watering its lawn during drought restrictions.
That makes Creekstone’s proposal both ambitious and politically useful. If the technology works, it could help developers answer one of the most persistent objections to sprawling AI and computing campuses in dry states: that they take scarce water while offering little back. For now, though, the claim remains a theory awaiting independent scrutiny, and the burden will be on the company and its university partner to show that the system can deliver reliable water rather than just a provocative promise.
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