Brownfield Datacenter Sites in Wisconsin
At a glance
Previously developed land with real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups, infill locations near fiber, and redevelopment incentives.
Top brownfield sites in Wisconsin
| Site | Type | County | Former use | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| College Avenue Landfill | Brownfield | Milwaukee | landfill | — | 2 MW | 4.3 yrs | 63.4 |
| Wisconsin Rapids Pulp Mill | Brownfield | Wood County | biomass | — | 72 MW | 4.3 yrs | 61.7 |
| Oneida Casino | Brownfield | Brown County | oil | — | 4 MW | 4.3 yrs | 61.7 |
| Milwaukee County | Brownfield | Milwaukee County | coal | — | 11 MW | 4.3 yrs | 61.2 |
| Zion Landfill Gas to Energy Facility | Brownfield | Kenosha County | gas | — | 7 MW | 4.7 yrs | 60.7 |
| Winnebago County Landfill Gas | Brownfield | Winnebago County | gas | — | 4 MW | 4.3 yrs | 60.1 |
| MMSD Jones Island Wastewater | Brownfield | Milwaukee County | gas | — | 18 MW | 4.3 yrs | 57.3 |
| Domtar Paper Company Rothschild | Brownfield | Marathon County | gas | — | 6 MW | 4.3 yrs | 56.6 |
| Bay Front | Brownfield | Ashland County | biomass | — | 20 MW | 4.3 yrs | 55.6 |
| Port Edwards Mill | Brownfield | Wood County | oil | — | 7 MW | 4.3 yrs | 53.5 |
| Northern States Flambeau | Brownfield | Price County | gas | — | 16 MW | 4.3 yrs | 52.3 |
| Lake Area Landfill Gas Recovery | Brownfield | Washburn County | gas | — | 3 MW | 4.3 yrs | 45.8 |
How does Wisconsin compare with other states for brownfield sites?
With 12 sites, Wisconsin ranks 19th of the 49 states that have any brownfield candidate sites. California leads with 103. Nationally, brownfield sites average 57.5/100 DC Readiness, above the 53.0 average across all site types. Across every site type, Wisconsin averages 55.4, the 14th-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.3 years.
Where are the highest-scoring brownfield sites in Wisconsin?
The top 12 range from 63.4 to 45.8 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Milwaukee (3) and Wood County (2). By grid region, 11 are in MISO and 1 is in PJM.
County pages: Milwaukee · Wood County · Brown County · Kenosha County
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these brownfield sites have?
Their counties have a median of 9 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 34 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 4.3 years. 1 of the 12 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 2 lie within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How many brownfield datacenter sites are in Wisconsin?
GridCensus catalogs 12 brownfield datacenter candidate sites in Wisconsin, 2% of the national total for this type (19th of 49 states).
What is a brownfield datacenter site?
Previously developed land with real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups, infill locations near fiber, and redevelopment incentives.
What is the best brownfield datacenter site in Wisconsin?
By DC Readiness Score, College Avenue Landfill in Milwaukee ranks first at 63.4/100, followed by Wisconsin Rapids Pulp Mill in Wood County at 61.7.
Which Wisconsin counties have the best brownfield sites?
The top 12 brownfield sites in Wisconsin are concentrated in Milwaukee (3) and Wood County (2).
How does Wisconsin score for datacenters overall?
All 3,340 scored sites in Wisconsin average 55.4/100 DC Readiness, the 14th-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on brownfield sites and Wisconsin
- All datacenter sites in Wisconsin· 3,340 sites
- Brownfield datacenter sites nationwide· 771 sites
- Substation-Adjacent sites in Wisconsin· 1,248 sites
- Industrial sites in Wisconsin· 1,013 sites
- Greenfield sites in Wisconsin· 465 sites
- Former Mine sites in Wisconsin· 364 sites
- Shovel-Ready sites in Wisconsin· 169 sites
- Federal Excess sites in Wisconsin· 69 sites
Brownfield sites in other states
- Brownfield sites in California· 103 sites
- Brownfield sites in New Jersey· 52 sites
- Brownfield sites in New York· 48 sites
- Brownfield sites in Massachusetts· 44 sites
- Brownfield sites in Iowa· 38 sites
- Brownfield sites in Illinois· 33 sites
- Brownfield sites in Texas· 30 sites
- Brownfield sites in Ohio· 29 sites
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
About this data
Source: GridCensus composite of HIFLD transmission and substation data, EIA, FEMA National Risk Index, FCC broadband data, PeeringDB and ISO interconnection queues, as published November 12, 2026 — GridCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield datacenter sites in Wisconsin”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/brownfield/wisconsin (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Brownfield sites in Wisconsin is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.