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Gridcensus

UW Madison Charter Street Plant

Brownfield

Madison, Dane, Wisconsin · State of Wisconsin

Legacy capacity
22
MW

UW Madison Charter Street Plant is a former biomass site in Madison, Dane, Wisconsin. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 22 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

Former useformer biomass site
Site typeretired_plant
Existing capacity22 MW
EIA plant ID#54408

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation0.0 mi
Operator address117 North Charter Street, Madison, WI, 53715
Why this site is datacenter-attractive: a former biomass site of this scale leaves behind a high-capacity grid interconnection that a new load can re-use, frequently shaving years off the interconnection queue. Retired-plant sites also tend to be already zoned for heavy industrial use with established road, rail, and water infrastructure.

Site conditions & market — Dane 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

Total employment (laborshed)275,196
IT / tech employment1,469
Construction employment17,391
Land value$9,427/acre
Datacenter tax incentivesales_tax_exemption

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate12.96¢/kWh
Industrial power rate8.87¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)0.6%

Water & cooling

Water stressLow
Public water supply43.5 MGD
Industrial water use2.6 MGD
Cooling degree days600
Mean annual temp44°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index22.0 · Relatively Low
Fiber providers16 · 72% served

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 UW Madison Charter Street Plant — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.

SiteFormer useLegacy MWDistanceCleanup status
Blount Streetcoal plant881.5 mi—
Sheepskinnatural gas plant4221.9 mi—
Capitol Heat and Powernatural gas plant31.3 mi—
Refuse Hideaway Landfillformer superfund site05.9 micleanup_complete

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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Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near UW Madison Charter Street Plant, ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near UW Madison Charter Street Plant
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
CARDINALSubstation-AdjacentWIDane County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs68.9
NORTH MADISON 345/138KVSubstation-AdjacentWIDane County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs67.0
OZ DaneGreenfieldWIDane——1.4 yrs65.5
EC Near Blount StreetGreenfieldWIDane——1.4 yrs65.1
CHRISTIANASubstation-AdjacentWIJefferson County345 kV600 MW2.8 yrs65.1
OZ DaneGreenfieldWIDane——1.4 yrs65.0
OZ DaneGreenfieldWIDane——1.4 yrs64.8
OZ DaneGreenfieldWIDane——1.4 yrs64.8

Nearby internet exchanges

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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 UW Madison Charter Street Plant, Madison, Dane, Wisconsin. 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.