Jade Without the Builder | Crusoe Out on Wyoming’s 1.8 Gw Project

On June 10^th, Black Hills Corp. (BHK) confirmed Crusoe is out of Project Jade, a 1.8GW data center campus in Cheyenne, Wyoming. BHK will now develop directly with an undisclosed large-load customer, which has already committed over $200M toward construction milestones. Tallgrass Energy, which is building the adjacent 2.7GW Cheyenne Power Hub that will feed the campus, reported Crusoe exited months before any public announcement.

Crusoe, the Denver-based AI infrastructure company that built its brand on stranded gas-to-compute, now faces questions about project execution. The broader grid challenge here is figuring out which loads will materialize and how. EIR’s ERCOT Large Load | Batch Zero Readiness report demonstrates the kind of project-level distinction that matters across all markets. Built across 12 key signals, it goes beyond a simple viable/not-viable split, identifying which projects are positioned for expedited interconnection and which will route through BTM or later batches. As tracked in EIR’s Long-Term Load Forecast, load growth continues to outpace infrastructure, making that distinction increasingly consequential for investors and developers assessing queue risk. A FERC announcement expected June 18th on large-load interconnection cost allocation may bring some clarity. Until a framework is finalized, the gap between announced capacity and delivered load remains one of the most consequential unknowns in power markets today.

Research Highlights:

• 2026 Electric Vehicle Forecast | Market Cooldown: This report updates EIR’s U.S. EV outlook relative to our previous projection. It sits within EIR’s Long-Term Load Forecast, which analyzes multiple load drivers across the L48. It covers EV sales, charging profiles, and regional adoption.

• Ground Truth | What the Next BLM Geothermal Parcels Will Fetch:  The question of how much L48 capturable CO2 clears 45Q is answered through EIRs revised capture cost model. The report then assesses where the sub-$85/tonnes cluster occurs.

• Capturing the Cost 2.0 | 85% Out of Reach:  We analyze what sets the price of a federal geothermal lease, and which operators are likely to bid. Prices and expected bidders are then estimated for this year’s New Mexico and Idaho sales.