The climate cannot afford an AI movement carried by fossil fuels. In building its new AI data center, Microsoft must establish itself as a clean energy leader and turn towards renewables over gas plants
By Klara Henry, Environmental Attorney
In May 2024, Microsoft announced its intent to develop a $3.3 billion artificial intelligence (AI) data center, for which it purchased 173 acres in the village of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The company purchased additional land nearby in July of 2024, bringing its total land acquisition for the project to 1,200 acres. As reliance on artificial intelligence grows sharply, Microsoft addressed the need for such a facility to “aggregate[] lots and lots of computing power” and “house the data that’s required to train the [artificial intelligence] models.”
However, there is a steep cost associated with such a facility: a renewed reliance on gas plants to provide the energy needs for AI data centers in Wisconsin. We Energies, a major utility provider in the state, plans to build a new methane gas-fired power plant, which the industry refers to as “natural” gas, in Kenosha County, which it claims is “critical” to meeting the needs of industry in the area, including new data centers. The greenhouse gas emission cost of the new gas plant is projected to be up to 590,000 tons annually. We Energies has described its evolving energy policy as one in which the “backbone” will be renewable sources, but that these sources won’t “always” be there to meet the needs of energy users, and that methane gas will shoulder some of the burden.
Instead of investing heavily in the methane gas sector and expending resources on methane gas infrastructure, Sierra Club urges We Energies and other energy providers to use the nation’s increasing needs for energy as an opportunity to advance carbon-free sources. Data indicates that the gas plants built today may need to operate for decades to recover construction costs–further, utilities are building and operating new gas plants in addition to extending the lives of outdated coal plants to meet this projected rising energy demand.. Delaying the retirement and replacement of coal plants, as well as replacing coal plants with another fossil fuel like gas, undermines all efforts to achieve carbon reduction targets vital to avert climate catastrophe.
Utility providers are not the only ones with important steps to take: regulators must demand that large customers, such as data center operators, be transparent about their expected energy load, and require utility providers to map out their plan to meet increased loads without dependence on methane gas. Furthermore, large buyers should be held accountable for the amount of energy they use, and pay their fair share of system costs, so that energy providers do not have to plan to run gas plants for decades to recoup building costs. Ideally, when faced with the true cost of transmission and operation of energy from methane gas plants, heavy users like Microsoft will realize the benefit of demanding clean energy and pursuing avenues for decarbonization. Microsoft, and similar heavy users of energy, are poised to lead on clean energy by demanding it from utility companies. Rather than addressing increased energy needs by turning to outdated fossil-fuel intensive technology like methane gas plants, large users have a massive bargaining chip to demand clean energy.
Concerned citizens and organizations like Clean Wisconsin have already urged Microsoft to reconsider plans to build the new data center as the gas required to power it could lock Wisconsin into “30 more years of fossil fuels” and push clean energy goals further out of reach. Earlier this month, Microsoft paused construction on parts of the Mount Pleasant data center, indicating that it still plans to open the data center but must evaluate “scope and recent changes in technology” impacting future phases of the build before continuing with construction. As work on the project slows down, even temporarily, Microsoft has the renewed opportunity to reconsider its dependence on gas to fuel its data center.
This month has already seen the devastating impacts of climate change in the form of uncontrollable wildfires in Los Angeles, and locking in decades more of fossil fuel dependence is untenable. Before construction resumes in full swing, Sierra Club urges Microsoft to critically consider how much damage new gas plants will do towards worsening climate change, and establish itself as a leader in clean energy by committing to entirely renewable energy sources in its data center operation.
Take action on the proposed gas plants by visiting https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/leave-gas-in-the-past/petition