New York-based
Digital Power Optimization, a developer and operator of data centers, plans to build a $200 million data center on approximately 10 acres of land in Wisconsin Rapids.
The data center, which will be located near downtown Wisconsin Rapids along Highway 34, will enable up to 20 megawatts of artificial intelligence computing, according to a Friday announcement. The data center is expected to be up and running by 2026.
DPO partners with utilities and independent power producers to locate data centers on-site at power generation facilities to use renewable energy for their operation.
DPO is working with Billerud subsidiary
Consolidated Water Power Company, a regulated utility operating 32 megawatts of renewable hydroelectric generation assets within its electrical distribution system.
Through its relationship with CWPCo, DPO has secured a definitive land lease extending for up to 50 years, interconnection rights to an existing and energized substation, and access to a firm power supply.
"With our definitive agreements with CWPCo now finalized, we're thrilled to launch the development of this cutting-edge facility," said
Andrew Webber, chief executive officer of DPO. "The shortage of high-density rack space is going to be a sustained trend well into the 2030s, and our strategy of leveraging underutilized land, infrastructure, and power, creates a win-win solution for all stakeholders. Speed-to-energization is critical in today's market, and by forming relationships with forward-thinking power partners like CWPCo, and designing to what is immediately actionable, facilities like this can be brought online several years ahead of hyperscale projects."
The Wisconsin Rapids data center project will be DPO's second commercial-scale project to date. The firm has also built several pilot facilities across the U.S.
Data center development has been on the rise in Wisconsin. Since Microsoft announced its $3.3 billion data center investment in Mount Pleasant
last May, another project
in Port Washington has also been unveiled. The Port Washington data center project, which would span more than 1,000 acres and cost more than $1 billion, is proposed by Houston-based Cloverleaf Infrastructure. A data center campus development is also
planned in Kenosha.
