Cooper Center Releases Comprehensive Findings on Data Centers in the Great Lakes Region
The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service released today a comprehensive report on data centers in the Great Lakes region. With the support of The Joyce Foundation, economists examined the economic, fiscal, and energy implications of current and future data centers in eight states: New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Aggregate data illuminates dramatic growth in the sector, and offers trends for future use, energy efficiency, and the impacts of data centers on state Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Data centers’ energy demand will more than double in five of the eight states in the Great Lakes area as new and larger data centers come online.
“Data centers are rapidly expanding in the Great Lakes region, creating a critical need to better understand the larger environmental and economic impact,” said Joyce Foundation Environment Program Director Elizabeth Cisar. “These fact-based findings provide policy makers and residents alike with important information about how these facilities affect the region and its communities.”
This is the first time a combined wealth of information on Great Lakes area data centers is publicly available in one place for the use of local and state leaders and the public alike. The data was sourced primarily from Standard & Poors/451 and supplemented with microdata from individual facilities and utilities' proprietary data.
“The Weldon Cooper Center has been studying data centers for several years,” said João Ferreira, acting director of the Center for Economics and Policy Studies at the Cooper Center. “We have deep expertise in environmental economics. And, given our proximity to Northern Virginia, home to the greatest number of data centers worldwide, we have been keeping a close eye on the data center growth and its impacts here. We developed a methodology that helps predict the impact of data center growth in the short and long term.”
In addition to the report, the Cooper Center produced one-page fact sheets with key takeaways from its findings, an FAQ, and several explainer videos. These materials are available on the Cooper Center website and are intended to help policy makers and the general public understand how data centers affect their communities.
Looking ahead, while data centers are becoming more efficient, especially when it comes to cooling, the impact on water sources is still substantial. Later in 2026, the Cooper Center will release a study on the water required to produce electricity for Great Lakes data centers.
The University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service supports a well-informed citizenry by providing nonpartisan, reliable research and leadership training to individuals and entities that serve the public good. The Cooper Center's staff are experts in public management, demography, economics and public finance, policy, political science, mediation, leadership and organizational development, survey research, and more. For more information, please visit http://www.coopercenter.org/.
The Joyce Foundation is a Chicago-based, nonpartisan, private foundation that invests in policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region in the areas of Culture, Democracy, Education & Economic Mobility, Environment, Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform, and Journalism. Learn more at http://www.joycefdn.org.
