CHAMPAIGN COUNTY – Two data center companies have contacted Champaign County with interest in developing in Sidney and Tolono, according to Director of Planning and Zoning John Hall.
ABEI Energy, an independent power producer based in Spain, contacted the county about a data center site outside of Tolono on May 7, 2025, with a few additional conversations afterward, Hall said. Nodiac, a data center developer based in Denver, inquired about a site outside of Sidney on Aug. 28 and Sept. 3, 2026.
Sidney Trustee Leroy Schluter said he was surprised when news broke about the data center proposal Wednesday.
“The village President John Finn did not know anything about it,” he said. “I myself didn’t know anything about it, so that was news to us.”
Tolono officials have not responded to a request for comment on the data center proposal.
The county has not received an application from either company, Hall said.
“I don’t know how serious they are,” he said.
Representatives from ABEI Energy and Nodiac did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both proposals target unincorporated land outside of the villages and under the jurisdiction of the county, Hall said. The county currently has a pause on data center development until next spring while a task force develops new guidelines for future largescale projects.
Sidney officials are not very interested in pursuing a data center within village limits, Schluter said.
“It would have to come with extremely massive perks for us to even be interested,” he said.
Schluter added community members are also not interested in data center development.
“We just don’t think that would be a very wise environmental decision,” he said, “and it wouldn’t be a decision that our residents would support.”
Earlier this week, Mahomet officials ended talks with a data center developer after facing backlash from the community. Officials there had been in talks with Clean Cloud Energy, a data center developer based on the east coast.
State lawmakers have not enacted data center regulations thus far, but Gov. JB Pritzker has called on the legislature to take up the issue in their November veto session.