Cook County, Illinois
DataCentersExposed tracks 28 AI data centers in Cook County, Illinois — 16 operating and 4 in the pipeline, drawing 285 MW of reported power demand, led by Digital Realty Trust, Inc.. Its transparent data-center risk score is 0/100.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
- Project exposure · 37
- Power demand · 0
- Water draw · n/a
- Land footprint · n/a
What's happening in Cook County
Facilities here with disclosed capacity draw 285 MW from the local grid. Data-center load on this scale is the single biggest driver of recent capacity-market price increases — costs that flow through to every ratepayer in the service territory, not just the operators.
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has the largest presence in Cook County. We resolve project codenames and shell LLCs back to the corporate parent wherever the public record allows, so the table below names who is actually behind each site.
Below: every tracked facility in the county, the active state legislation that names it or its county, and local news. Commissioner vote records arrive in a later release; the placeholders show where that accountability data will land.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 1 standardized 36 MW campus in Cook County by 2035 — roughly 36 MW of new electricity demand and ~35 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 2 campuses (72 MW). For scale, we currently track 28 real data centers in Cook County (285 MW of reported power).
- Moderate growth136 MW · ~35 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth272 MW · ~70 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth272 MW · ~70 M gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in Cook County (the rest to mechanical/air cooling), a split it derives from local water stress and wet-bulb temperature.
These are modeled candidate sites, not announced or permitted facilities. PNNL's IM3 model places identical 36 MW unit-campuses at feasible locations under each scenario — it shows where demand could concentrate, never a specific parcel. Figures use a market-gravity weight of 50. How the model works.
Every tracked facility
| Facility | Operator | Status | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aligned Elk Grove Village | — | Proposed | — |
| Nexstar Media Group Data Center Elk Grove Village | — | Proposed | — |
| Stream Data Center Elk Grove Village | — | Proposed | — |
| HydraVault Data Center Chicago | — | Under construction | 20 |
| Aligned Data Center - Chicago ORD-01 Northlake | Aligned Energy Holdings, LP | Mapped (unverified) | 42 |
| QTS Chicago Chicago | QTS Realty Trust, LLC | 42 | |
| Digital Realty Chicago ORD12 Franklin Park | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | 40 | |
| T5 Chicago II Elk Grove Village | — | 36 | |
| Stream Chicago II Elk Grove Village | Stream Data Centers | 32 | |
| Digital Realty CH3 Elk Grove Village | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | 25.6 | |
| Equinix Chicago CH3 Elk Grove Village | Equinix, Inc. | 20.65 | |
| Stream Chicago I Elk Grove Village | Stream Data Centers | 15 | |
| EdgeConneX CHI02 Elk Grove Village | EdgeConneX, Inc. | 6 | |
| Equinix Chicago Data Center - CH1 Chicago | Equinix, Inc. | 6 | |
| Barrington Hills Data Center Barrington Hills | — | Withdrawn | — |
| Centersquare Chicago Data Center - ORD1 Chicago | CenterSquare (formerly Cyxtera) | — | |
| CoreSite Chicago Data Center (CH1) Chicago | American Tower Corporation | — | |
| CoreSite Chicago Data Center (CH2) Chicago | American Tower Corporation | — | |
| Digital Realty ORD10 Chicago | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | — | |
| Digital Realty ORD11 Chicago | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | — | |
| Iron Mountain Data & Record Storage Chicago | Iron Mountain Incorporated | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Lakeside Technology Center Chicago | — | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Microsoft - Azure Datacenter Northlake | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Netrality Chicago | — | — | |
| STACK Chicago CHI01 | Stack Infrastructure, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| Serverfarm CH1 Chicago | Serverfarm | — | |
| Skybox Chicago I Elk Grove Village | — | Mapped (unverified) | — |
| West Monroe | — | Mapped (unverified) | — |
County commissioners
How the Cook County board votes on each data-center matter — the rezonings, the abatements, the water permits — is built from public-meeting minutes and roll-call records. Know of a vote we should be tracking? Tell us.