Data Center Registry
Rock Air Data Center Campus
Rockford, Illinois
Rock Air Data Center Campus is a proposed data center in Rockford, Illinois, operated by Monarch Energy. The public record puts it at announced June 2026, 1.4 GW planned, 1,300 acres.
Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.
Facility record
Proposed
- Operator
- Monarch Energy
- Facility type
- Data center
- Location
- 8685 Friday Road, Rockford, IL
- Coordinates
- 42.1514, -89.1011 (approximate)
- Power capacity
- 1.4 GW planned
- Land
- 1,300 acres
- Investment
- Not established from a public source
- Announced
- June 2026
- Utility
- Not established from a public source
- Cooling
- Not established from a public source
- Water use
- Not established from a public source
- Jobs
- 100 permanent
- Public subsidy
- Illinois Data Center Investment Program, Illinois, 2026
- Community reception
- No reception on record
- Source confidence
- Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing
Timeline from the record
Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.
- September 12, 2026ProposedState incentive agreement executed June 2026, before the program pause took effect on 1 July 2026; the City of Rockford was not a party to the agreement. Source: Rockford News First
Opposition and litigation at this site
Nothing on record as of September 12, 2026. No lawsuit, organized opposition, or contested hearing over Rock Air Data Center Campus in Rockford, Illinois appears in the sources this registry tracks. That is an absence in our sources rather than a finding that none exists, and local opposition often predates any coverage a national dataset would pick up.
If you live near this site and something is happening that this page does not show, that is worth telling us. Send us the document and it goes in the record with the source attached. For sites where opposition is already established, see every contested site we track.
Public money on the record
| Program | Amount | Granted by | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois Data Center Investment Program | Not established | Illinois | 2026 |
Notes on the record
Phased 1,400 MW campus on roughly 1,300 acres south of Chicago-Rockford International Airport. The state agreement requires the facility in service by 11 March 2031, carbon neutrality within two years of operations starting, a minimum 20-year operating term and at least 100 employees (74 operations, 20 maintenance, 6 executive). The investment amount in the published agreement is redacted; the program's statutory floor is $250 million, so no investment figure is recorded here.
What the record does not establish, and the document that would
In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.
- Cooling method and water use
- How the community has received it
- Which utility serves it
Which document closes each gap
- Cooling method and water use
- The water service agreement, any groundwater appropriation permit, and the mechanical narrative in the site plan.
- How the community has received it
- Planning commission and governing body minutes, public comment records, and any petition or lawsuit filed in the county.
- Which utility serves it
- The electric service agreement or the utility's filing with the state public utility commission.
Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.
Other sites within 30 miles
Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.
- Steward Drive Data Center (Rochelle) · Rochelle · Midwest Power Investors LLC (LFF Industrial)18 mi · Cancelled · 150 MW · Opposed
- Meta DeKalb Data Center · DeKalb · Meta23 mi · Operating · Supported
Questions people ask about this site
Is there opposition to the Rock Air Data Center Campus in Rockford?
Nothing on record as of September 12, 2026. No lawsuit, organized opposition, or contested hearing over Rock Air Data Center Campus in Rockford, Illinois appears in the sources this registry tracks. That is an absence in our sources rather than a finding that none exists, and local opposition often predates any coverage a national dataset would pick up.
Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Rock Air Data Center Campus?
No lawsuit over Rock Air Data Center Campus appears in the record we track as of September 12, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.
How much water does Rock Air Data Center Campus use?
No water withdrawal figure for Rock Air Data Center Campus is on record here. Water use is rarely published voluntarily; it usually surfaces through a utility service agreement or a state withdrawal permit, both of which are public records. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.
Who operates Rock Air Data Center Campus, and how big is it?
Monarch Energy is the operator on record. Capacity on record is 1.4 GW. The site is recorded at 1300 acres.
How to cite this page
SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Rock Air Data Center Campus," updated September 12, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/monarch-rock-air-rockford-il.
Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.32.0 (September 7, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/monarch-rock-air-rockford-il, retrieved September 14, 2026.
Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.
Sources for this record
As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.
- 1.Incentive deal for proposed Rockford data center shows possible development timeline · Rockford News First · retrieved September 12, 2026
- 2.Illinois Data Center Map, Monarch Rock Air Data Center Campus · dcmap.us · retrieved September 12, 2026
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