Data centers in Dane County, Wisconsin: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Dane County's data center fight began in the town of Vienna north of Madison, where QTS Data Centers proposed a campus in late 2025 on land that would have been annexed into the village of DeForest. The land is still designated for agricultural preservation in the county's comprehensive plan, and American Transmission Company filed in December for a permit to expand a substation in Vienna to "provide electrical service to a potential new customer." DeForest paid Mueller Communications about $109,000, to be reimbursed by QTS, to handle public relations around the proposal. Residents organized against it, and on February 3, 2026 the DeForest Village Board voted unanimously to reject the annexation petition; the substation application was withdrawn at the end of January. "And now we are seeing an unprecedented number of new 'sacrifice zones' being created across the United States, and even here in Wisconsin," said Winona Storms, an organizer of the opposition. County Board member Colin Barushok said a QTS executive told him DeForest's rejection had deterred the company from exploring further projects in the county.

The proposal prompted County Board Chair Patrick Miles to set up an advisory committee on data centers, which began meeting in February, to "lift the veil of opacity" he had seen elsewhere. He had wanted a countywide moratorium too, but county lawyers said state law prohibited it. Then Manitowoc County passed one by targeting the permitting process rather than development itself, and Dane County copied it. On June 4, 2026 the County Board unanimously approved a pause on zoning permit applications for hyperscale data centers until December 2027 in the 26 towns under county zoning. It does not cover the six towns that have opted out of county zoning, or the county's villages and cities, which zone for themselves. Supervisor Aria Trucios, a power plant operator, compared a data center's uneven load on the grid to a "brick in a dryer."

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.