Gigawatt Ledger · one-page briefing
Campus profile Under construction
Fairwater
Microsoft · Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
The resource footprint
Modelled averageIn one day, this campus consumes about
2.7850-metre swimming pools
Filled with the volume of water consumed by the campus and its electricity supply.
The actual estimate1,834,884 US gallons consumed
Power-plant water may come from a different watershed. This is a volume comparison, not a claim that households lose this water.
At current operating capacity · Annual model spread evenly over time, not a live meter. Site estimates may differ by roughly ±40%.
Comparison sizes & sources
One pool = 50 × 25 × 2 metres = 2.5 million litres (about 660,430 US gallons). Pool depths vary; this is a defined comparison size.
One home-year = 10,791 kWh, the EIA’s 2022 average US residential electricity purchases. This excludes electricity generated at home and is a fixed US benchmark for all sites.
One car-year = 4.6 tonnes CO₂, the EPA’s typical passenger vehicle tailpipe estimate. The campus model is in CO₂e; the comparison expresses approximate climate scale, not equal mixtures of pollutants.
Monthly values are annual totals ÷ 12; daily values are annual totals ÷ 365. Actual demand varies. Comparisons cover the whole campus, including non-AI uses.
Water: see the numbers and sources
This is water used up, mainly through evaporation. Power-generation water may be used in a different watershed.
- Pressure on local water
- Low — a regional measure of demand compared with available water
- 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
- Claimed vs observed
- City of Racine records: 2.8 million gallons a year in phase 1, 8.4 million at full build, from Lake Michigan.
Air: see the numbers and sources
The totals include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and fine particles. They cover both this site and the power plants supplying it.
- Health range
- $19.0–53.7 million a year. Lower bound is EASIUR national mid-range; upper is EPA benefit-per-ton at a ~$12M VSL.
- Statistical deaths
- 4.48 a year at that VSL — a national-average conversion from tons, not a local concentration study.
- Equals
- 420,227 cars of NOx
- Where it burns
- PJM RFC — Ohio / Penn.
- Generation mix
- Gas 48 · Nuclear 27 · Coal 20
- Diesel backup
- 229 gensets, 161 MW standby. Test-hours term: 19.3 t NOx/yr (50 h at 30% load, 8 kg NOx/MWh).
- Air permit
- 99.2 t/yr NOx enforced cap — 0.79 tons under the 100-ton Title V major-source line
- CO₂e
- 650 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
The project, approvals and community concerns
- 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 current capacity / 900 MW full-build scenario
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.
Keep this guide handy
42.7261°, -87.9073°
Quote or share these estimates
Gigawatt Ledger (2026). Fairwater: water and air. https://gigawatt-ledger.pages.dev/site/fairwater/. Modelled from disclosed capacity; site-level error ±40%.
Include the estimate’s date, whether it describes current or proposed capacity, and its uncertainty. Get an embeddable card.
Gigawatt Ledger · September 2026. Water and air figures are estimated from public records and disclosed capacity. How we calculate them · Use this in your community.