Everything on this site is built from public documents. This page collects them so you can read the originals rather than take our word for anything.
Where a link goes to the University’s own materials or to a government agency, we have not filtered or summarized it. Read it directly and form your own view.
The project
- U-M × Los Alamos Research Computing Center FAQ — the University’s official project page, from the Office of the Vice President for Research. Covers capacity, water, backup power, jobs, and the town hall schedule. This is the primary source for most of the project’s public claims.
- University Record: Textile Road selected as preferred site — the University’s August 2026 announcement, including its responses to the Township’s security and land use concerns.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — the federal laboratory that would occupy the larger of the two buildings. Operated for the National Nuclear Security Administration within the U.S. Department of Energy.
Local government
- Ypsilanti Township: Data Center Information — the Township’s own archive, with its resolutions, correspondence, and a dated timeline. The best single source for what the Township has actually done. Start here if you want the local record.
- Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) — the water and sewer authority governed jointly by Ypsilanti Township and the City of Ypsilanti. YCUA purchases water from the Great Lakes Water Authority and serves roughly 151,000 water customers. In April 2026 its board voted a twelve-month moratorium on service to data centers and AI computing facilities. Board meeting agendas and minutes are posted here.
- City of Ypsilanti: YCUA board — the City appoints two members to the YCUA board. Useful if you want to know who decides on utility service.
The state record
- Michigan Strategic Fund Board Packet, December 2024 (PDF) — the single most informative document about this project. Pages 52–65 contain the University’s $100 million grant application, an itemized $1.25 billion budget, the 100 MW / 10 MW capacity split between Los Alamos and the University, substation and water details, job projections, and the approving resolution. Much of what the public materials omit is here.
- MSF board packet archive — all board packets. Grant recipients file annual progress reports that the MSF transmits to the Legislature.
- MEDC announcement of the grant — December 10, 2024.
- Michigan Legislature — look up current data center legislation and find your own state representative and senator. Bill numbers change between sessions, so check status before citing anything.
- Michigan Public Service Commission — regulates DTE. Substation cost allocation, large-load rates, and interconnection are decided here, and case filings and public comment opportunities are posted publicly. This process is not affected by the University’s zoning exemption.
- Michigan EGLE — state environmental permitting: air permits for backup generators, stormwater, wetlands, and water withdrawal. Permit applications carry mandatory public comment periods, and these also apply regardless of local zoning.
Research and analysis
- “What Happens When Data Centers Come to Town?” (PDF) — July 2025 policy brief by Terry Nguyen and Ben Green, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. Covers utility rate impacts, tax revenue, employment, and cooling trade-offs, and recommends policies including energy audits, renewable additionality, public reporting, and protection against ratepayer cost-shifting. Note: the brief contains a unit error in its energy figures, confusing megawatts with megawatt-hours. Rely on its policy analysis rather than those numbers.
- 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (PDF) — Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. The authoritative source for national data center electricity consumption. A 2025 update projects consumption through 2030.
- Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2025 (PDF) — survey of more than 800 operators. Industry data on power usage effectiveness, rack densities, water metric reporting, and outage causes.
- Brookings Institution: New evidence on data center employment effects — independent analysis of what data centers actually do to local employment.
- Hamm Institute for American Energy: Data Center Employment Forecast Analysis (PDF) — November 2025. Staffing ratios per megawatt for both construction and operations.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: household electricity use — the baseline for any “equivalent to X homes” comparison, including ours.
Backup generators and emissions
- EPA: Understanding the Stationary Engines Rules — how emergency generators are regulated, including the annual hour allowance for readiness testing.
- 40 CFR Part 63, Subpart ZZZZ — the federal rule text itself.
- Cummins on alternative fuel emissions and Caterpillar on renewable liquid fuels — the engine manufacturers’ own data on hydrotreated vegetable oil, including the distinction between lifecycle carbon reduction and local pollutants such as NOx.
News coverage
- Planet Detroit — on the land purchase and how the Township was notified.
- The Michigan Daily — on the closing of the Textile Road purchase.
- The Eastern Echo — on the Township’s resolutions opposing the project.
Links verified August 28, 2026. If one has broken or a document has moved, tell us and we will fix it. If you know of a public document about this project that belongs on this page, send it along — including one that cuts against our position.