Badger Energy Bulletin: Data centers, blackouts, the fate of the IRA, and more...

Will utility ratepayers foot the bill for the data center boom?

Wisconsin utilities are gearing up to provide power for several proposed data centers, each of which could use as much electricity as an entire city.

Wisconsin lawmakers, startups envision a nuclear energy renaissance

Just a few years ago, the technology seemed to be heading for the exits, at least in the United States. But with new data centers threatening to overwhelm the current grid, nuclear power — including traditional fission plants, experimental small reactors, and potentially fusion — could be on the verge of a renaissance. 

A force of nature: quantifying the energy output of wild animals

By digging, burrowing, eating, stomping, and piling, wild animals expend at least 76,000 gigajoules per year reshaping the planet, the equivalent of half a million extreme floods.

After the sand rush: How one county is trying to leverage idled fracking infrastructure to attract bioenergy development

Chippewa County is one of the nation’s first Biofuel Development Opportunity Zones, a designation signalling readiness for bio-based manufacturing. With the frac sand industry in retreat, the goal is to leverage the massive rail terminals left behind to capitalize on the county’s rich agricultural resources. 

2024 was the dawn of Wisconsin's solar era, but there are clouds on the horizon

Renewable sources accounted for a record-high 10% of Wisconsin's electricity output in 2024 as a raft of new projects helped double solar energy output.

A final four like no other

In a Final Four like no other, scientists from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center met Tuesday in the Wisconsin Energy Institute to represent four tiny yet mighty bioenergy champions.

Wisconsin flunks energy democracy

When it comes to providing affordable, reliable, and clean electricity — and empowering citizens to share the economic benefits — Wisconsin is failing.