Fairwater

Microsoft · Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin

Water — consumed, not returned

Taken from the basin670M gal/yr
Evaporated on site8.81M gal
Making the power661M gal
Basin stressLow
Where the water comes from
Closed loop — negligible draw
Cooling
Sealed closed-loop liquid — filled once, then recirculated for the life of the building
Basis
Modelled from cooling design — WUE 0.02 L/kWh

Air — what the stacks emit

Nitrogen oxides317t/yr
Sulphur dioxide550t/yr
Fine particulates50.0t PM2.5
Health damages$53.1M/yr
Where it burns
PJM RFC — Ohio / Penn.
Generation mix
Gas 48 · Nuclear 27 · Coal 20
CO₂e
650 kt/yr — climate, not air quality

Who wanted it

Who asked for it
OpenAI — Microsoft builds and operates; OpenAI is the anchor workload
Who approved it
Village of Mount Pleasant / Racine County TIF district — the same district assembled for Foxconn in 2017; We Energies large-load agreement approved by the PSCW
What it serves
OpenAI training and Azure AI Foundry inference
IT capacity
200 MW running of 900 MW announced

Built on the land cleared for Foxconn's abandoned LCD plant. Its closed loop is filled once with roughly the volume of half an Olympic pool and never refilled, which makes it one of the lowest-water large sites in the fleet — the cost is more electricity for chillers.

Where it is

42.7261°, -87.9073°

Water and air figures are modelled from disclosed capacity, not measured — site-level error is roughly ±40%. Diesel backup generators are not counted, so on-site figures are floors. Full method.