New Sierra Club Reports Finds Wisconsin’s Dirty Power Generation Uses 1.34 Trillion Gallons of Water Annually

A new Sierra Club report looks at how much water Wisconsin's power plants use, and the numbers are large. Coal, gas, and nuclear plants in the state withdraw 1.34 trillion gallons of water a year, which is more than seven times what all Wisconsin cities and towns use combined, and 18 times more than farm irrigation. Solar and wind, by contrast, use so little water that federal energy officials don't even track it.

The report ties this to the rise of data centers, the large computer facilities that power things like AI, which are driving demand for new gas plants across the state. Five proposed gas plants meant to power data centers would use an average of 142 million gallons of water a year, mostly in summer, when heat and drought already strain supplies. One proposed plant in Kenosha, Red Oak Ridge, would draw up to 266,400 gallons a day, and its developer wants to pull that water from Lake Michigan. Another, Foundry Ridge, would use up to 55,152 gallons a day from local groundwater wells. Together, the five plants would produce about 4 gigawatts of power, enough for roughly 3 million homes, more than the 2.84 million homes that actually exist in Wisconsin.

For homeowners, this isn't a program or rebate story, but it points to where the state's electricity and water pressures are heading. As Wisconsin's grid leans more on gas plants to serve data centers, it's worth watching how that affects local water supplies and, potentially, future electric rates.