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Proposed project · Town of Plymouth, Juneau County, WI

A different kind of data center

A small, modular project proposed for the Town of Plymouth, near Elroy. Built to be quiet, low-impact, and to fit in with the area.

7 MW
Target capacity
~2 acres
A small fenced footprint
Low impact
A short build measured in months, fully removable and restorable to prior use

Conceptual rendering (subject to change)

Conceptual aerial rendering of the proposed Plymouth site: a single row of low modular compute units with cooling units beside them on a fenced gravel pad along the road, next to the existing Oakdale Electric substation, surrounded by woods and farm fields

What is being proposed in the Town of Plymouth

Nodiac builds small, modular data centers that are fundamentally different than the large-scale projects in the headlines. We use power that's already available on the local grid, instead of building new power plants or new power lines. The capacity we'd use here is existing capacity that isn't being put to good use today, so we're not taking power away from the community. The site itself is quiet and low-profile: a small footprint rather than a sprawling campus, and our site permits will keep it at a modest size.

The project itself is made up of a few standard pieces: a row of low modular compute units, no taller than 20 feet, with cooling and electrical equipment beside them on concrete pads. The chillers run a closed-loop liquid cooling system with no regular water use (plus some air cooling). Everything sits inside a gravel, fenced-in area with a landscaped screening buffer around the edge.

A simple way to think about it: comparing this project to one of the giant campuses in the news is like comparing a family dairy farm to a 5,000-head industrial operation. Both are farms, but they have very different impacts on the community in the short and long term.
No evaporative cooling
Closed-loop, no regular water use
No grid strain
Uses existing capacity
Locator map: the site is in the Town of Plymouth, Juneau County, west-central Wisconsin, near Elroy, southeast of where I-90 and I-94 meet at Tomah
Town of Plymouth, Juneau County — west-central Wisconsin, near Elroy, southeast of where I-90 and I-94 meet.

Proposed site layout compared to a large-scale campus

Aerial view showing the ~2 acre Plymouth site footprint, set against the red outline of a typical 750 acre hyperscale facility, roughly 375 times larger
Layout subject to change; comparison is to a 750 acre campus.

For the community

Community benefits

We want this project to bring lasting benefits to your community, and we would rather shape them with you than hand over a fixed list. We are still working through the options with local residents, officials, and the cooperative, and Nodiac plans to formalize whatever we land on in an agreement with the community.

If there is a benefit you'd like to see, tell us→

Property taxes and local employment

As with any development, the project pays full property taxes to Juneau County, the Town of Plymouth, and the schools. We also expect union labor during construction, and local jobs once the site is running, like groundskeeping, snow plowing, and on-site technicians.

How we build and run it

Development commitments

Beyond the community benefits, here is how we will commit to build and operate the site so we stay a good neighbor. These conditions can be written into our agreements with the Town of Plymouth, which makes them enforceable and part of the public record.

Tap a panel to open it.

Quiet operation

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At the nearest home, the goal is 40 to 50 decibels or lower. We test noise levels before and after construction.

How this is enforced

These aren't just promises. The project goes through the Town of Plymouth and Juneau County for its approvals, and the terms we agree to on noise, size and other conditions will be written into a memorandum of understanding and a community benefits agreement with the Town. That makes them enforceable and part of the public record.

Questions residents have asked

Power, water and noise
Project scope
Safety and environment
Future of the project

Have a question we haven't answered, or a comment on our proposal?

If there's a benefit you'd like to see, a development consideration you think we should include, or a concern you feel isn't addressed, please let us know. We want to hear your concerns so we can address them.

Nodiac

Proposed project · Town of Plymouth, Juneau County, Wisconsin