A new report from the Sierra Club, Thirsty Power: Coal and gas will leave us high and dry, analyzes Wisconsin’s current power generation, the water needed for that power, and the potential impacts on Wisconsin’s water as Big Tech tries to build more data centers across the state. These data centers require enormous amounts of power — and in some cases are prompting entirely new gas plants that will compound water and energy use at peak times. The report found, among other things, that: Wisconsin’s current dirty energy power fleet — including coal, gas, and nuclear plants — withdraws 1.34 trillion gallons of water annually. Meanwhile, solar and wind use so little water that the U.S. Energy Information Administration doesn’t even track their usage. This is more than 7 times all of the municipalities in Wisconsin combined, and 18 times more than agricultural irrigation. Five new gas plants, known or assumed to be proposed for data centers, would use 142 million gallons of water a year on average — the equivalent of the annual drinking water for 284 million people — and the majority of which would be needed during summer months when energy and water use has been strained by drought and heat. The proposed Red Oak Ridge gas plant in Kenosha would consume an estimated maximum of 266,400 gallons of water per day — the equivalent of daily consumption of nearly 3,248 average Americans — and its owner, Invenergy, wants to use Lake Michigan water. The proposed Foundry Ridge plant would use an estimated maximum of 55,152 gallons of groundwater from local wells per day. The five new proposed gas plants confirmed or suspected of being proposed to solely power data centers in Wisconsin equate to 4 gigawatts of power — or enough electricity to power approx. 3 million average homes. There are only 2.84 million homes in Wisconsin. Elizabeth Ward, Sierra Club Wisconsin Chapter Director, released the following statement: “Water is our way of life in Wisconsin, but our dependency on fossil fuels for power generation drains our most precious resource. Across the state, Big Tech is looking to build out massive AI data centers and power plant builders are asking regulators to green-light expensive gas plants to power them. The potential cost to our environment, our water, and our wallets is enormous. Wisconsin isn’t Wisconsin without safe, clean water to drink, swim, and fish in. The fossil fuel and gas rush has to be stopped– we have to protect our most vital resources.”
