Waukegan
BrownfieldWaukegan, Lake, Illinois · Midwest Generations EME LLC
Waukegan is a coal plant in Waukegan, Lake, Illinois, retired 2022-06-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 803 MW of generation, so the grid hookup, transmission rights, and often cooling-water access are already in place — collapsing the speed-to-power timeline versus a greenfield build.
Former use & capacity
Grid hookup & remediation
Site conditions & market — Lake County
County-level intelligence for this site's location — the power economics, water, hazard, connectivity, and workforce a developer screens before ever visiting. Assembled from FEMA NRI, BLS QCEW, FCC BDC, USGS water-use, and EIA.
Market & workforce
Power economics & interconnection
Water & cooling
Hazard, flood & connectivity
County-level context — address-level utility offerings and flood zoning vary within the county. Confirm site-specific service with the utility and a Phase I ESA.
Nearby brownfield & retired-generation sites
A proximity screen of other retired-plant, contaminated, and EPA-flagged sites near Waukegan — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.
| Site | Former use | Legacy MW | Distance | Cleanup status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Prairie | coal plant | 1,235 | 11.6 mi | — |
| Zion Energy Center | natural gas plant | 398 | 7.7 mi | — |
| Bloom | oil plant | 152 | 22.7 mi | — |
| Zion Landfill Gas to Energy Facility | natural gas plant | 7 | 7.7 mi | — |
| Lake Gas Recovery | natural gas plant | 3 | 19.1 mi | — |
Derived from GridCensus's retired-generator & EPA brownfield dataset. Not a substitute for an ASTM E1527 Phase I environmental radius report.
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Track Waukegan
Get an email when its DC-readiness score, available capacity, or interconnection-queue status changes.
Nearby datacenter candidate sites
Scored candidate sites near Waukegan, ranked by DC Readiness.
| Site | Type | State | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLEASANT PRAIRIE | Substation-Adjacent | WI | Kenosha County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 2.8 yrs | 70.7 |
| UNKNOWN121936 | Substation-Adjacent | IL | Kenosha County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.8 yrs | 70.6 |
| UNKNOWN133790 | Substation-Adjacent | IL | Lake County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.8 yrs | 68.9 |
| RACINE | Substation-Adjacent | WI | Racine County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 2.8 yrs | 67.3 |
| ZION | Substation-Adjacent | IL | Kenosha County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.8 yrs | 66.7 |
| COMMONWEALTH EDISON DES PLAINES (345KV) | Substation-Adjacent | IL | Lake County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.8 yrs | 66.6 |
| PROSPECT HEIGHTS | Substation-Adjacent | IL | Lake County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.8 yrs | 66.6 |
| TAP137894 | Substation-Adjacent | IL | Lake County | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.8 yrs | 66.3 |
Nearby internet exchanges
- Equinix CH1/CH2/CH4 - ChicagoChicago, IL · 329 networks
- Digital Realty CHI (350 E Cermak)Chicago, IL · 97 networks
- CoreSite - Chicago (CH1)Chicago, IL · 71 networks
- Equinix CH3 - Elk GroveElk Grove Village, IL · 44 networks
See all datacenter sites in Illinois →
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Brownfield attributes are derived from EIA retired-generator and EPA public data. Existing capacity reflects the retired plant's historical nameplate, not deliverable interconnection for a new load. Confirm reusable interconnection rights, remediation status, and site availability with the utility, ISO, and current owner.
Go deeper than the public screen
This page shows a public slice of the GridCensus dataset for Waukegan, Waukegan, Lake, Illinois. Pro and Enterprise plans unlock the full 147,272-site catalog, raw sub-scores, parcel ownership, interconnection-queue detail, saved searches, and programmatic API access.