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Environmental Helpline
If you have an environmental question or concern, we may be able to provide you with resources and referrals. Please call (608) 251-5047 x 9 or fill out this helpline form.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Tech companies and data center developers are skilled at limiting how much information about a planned data center reaches the public.
Use of Nondisclosure Agreements (NDAs)
Data center developers routinely use non-disclosure agreements to keep key details hidden from the public during early planning and approval stages. These NDAs often prevent local officials from sharing basic information about a project’s size, water use, energy demands, tax incentives, or corporate backers.
Use of Anonymous LLCs
Data center developers increasingly rely on anonymous or shell LLCs to quietly secure access to land, water and utility infrastructure long before communities understand what’s being proposed. These opaque corporate structures make it difficult for residents to identify who is behind a project, what their track record is, or how much public subsidy and infrastructure support is being sought on their behalf. For communities, this lack of transparency undermines meaningful public participation and accountability.
Claims of “Trade Secrecy”
Data center developers sometimes invoke claims of “trade secrecy” to withhold information that communities need to evaluate the true impacts of proposed projects. Under this rationale, details about water consumption, energy use, cooling technology, emissions, and more are shielded from public review. These claims stretch the meaning of trade secrets beyond protecting legitimate proprietary information and instead function as a barrier to accountability.
Hyperscale data centers require massive amounts of electricity.
The first phase of the Port Washington Data Center alone will use more electricity than half a million homes.
According to a new report by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, the Port Washington data center is one of three data center projects responsible for a projected 40 percent increase in statewide energy demand over the next six years. The majority of that demand will be served by new natural gas plants or upgrades to existing gas plants.
To meet this growing demand for electricity, the PSC has already approved a series of proposals for new gas-fired power generation. At the same time, the retirement of several coal-fired power plants has been delayed. These developments have grave implications for Wisconsin’s ability to decarbonize the electrical grid and mitigate climate change.
Hyperscale data centers in Wisconsin have turned to diesel generators as a source of backup power. Diesel exhaust is a type 1 carcinogen linked to cancer, heart, and lung disease. Large, industrial size generators also emit harmful air pollutants that increase the severity of smog, particularly on hot, sunny days. Batteries could provide backup power at data centers without these impacts.
The computer servers that fill a hyperscale data center generate heat and require powerful cooling systems. Traditionally, many large data centers used evaporative cooling, which cools air by the same process that sweat cools a body on a hot day. This type of cooling uses enormous amounts of water as it is evaporated into the ambient air.
In recent years, some data centers—especially hyperscale facilities—have begun switching to “closed-loop” systems or air-cooled systems. While these systems may appear to use less water, its off-site water footprint is huge. That’s because the coal and gas plants that power data centers consume vast amounts of water. In a typical year, over 70% of Wisconsin’s water consumption goes to electric generating facilities, mainly coal and gas plants.