After losing a major transmission project to a startup, American Transmission Company asks federal regulators to reopen the bidding, escalating a fight over who will build — and profit from — Wisconsin’s grid expansion as data centers drive demand.
Data centers
Posted inEconomic Development
In a Wisconsin land rush, data centers made them millionaires
Some sellers whose properties fetched several times the fair market value are dissatisfied, and their former neighbors aren’t happy either.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
We Energies asks Wisconsin regulators to ease data center credit standards
The utility says new financial security requirements for large data centers could discourage major investments in the state. Consumer advocates say the standards protect existing customers from financial risk.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
Video: Residents push back on proposed data facility, storage project at shuttered Milwaukee Walmart
The proposal would bring a public library and affordable housing to the area while converting the former Walmart into a data processing facility and self-storage complex.
Posted inEconomic Development
Wisconsin data center tax break to cost state more than $2 billion
Designed to lure data centers, the sales tax break is now drawing scrutiny. But some say the development boom will boost other types of revenue.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
Get the latest Wisconsin data center news you might have missed
Wisconsin Watch offers brief reports on data center development across the state exclusively in their free Monday newsletter Forward.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
Competition intensifies over who builds Wisconsin’s grid as data centers drive power demand
The Midwest’s grid operator reversed course on a key transmission project, marking a victory for Wisconsin’s largest transmission developer.
Posted inEconomic Development
Local data center critics praise Microsoft’s pledge to stop using NDAs, but remain skeptical
‘Companies typically don’t make announcements about building community trust unless those communities are already pushing back pretty hard,’ one environmental group says.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
Here’s what the data center boom means for Wisconsin’s workforce
Wisconsin Watch spoke to three professors to find out how many jobs and what types of work data centers bring to communities, what the economic trickle-down effects of data centers are and more.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
More than NDAs. Wisconsin communities face scrutiny over data center secrecy.
The town of Beloit is the fifth Wisconsin community with an NDA for a possible data center.