Data-center law in Michigan

MCL 125.3201

Effective 2006-07-01 · Applies to government

The Michigan Zoning Enabling Act (2006 PA 110) authorizes a local unit of government to regulate land development and establish zoning districts by ordinance, including districts that meet the state's needs for energy, industry, and other land uses, and to designate or limit the location, height, bulk, and size of buildings and structures that may be erected or altered.

Source: Full text of law

MCL 460.1221 to 460.1226

Effective 2024-11-29 · Applies to both

2023 PA 233 added Part 8 to the Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act (2008 PA 295), giving the Michigan Public Service Commission siting authority over a utility-scale wind, solar, or energy storage facility.

A local unit of government with a compatible renewable energy ordinance retains its own permitting role and must approve or deny the application within 120 days, though the developer may take the application to the commission instead if the local unit lacks a compatible ordinance, fails to act timely, denies the application, or later tightens its ordinance beyond the statute's own siting standards. The commission must grant or deny a certificate within one year of a complete application. A certificate lapses if construction has not commenced within 5 years of issuance.

Source: Full text of law

MCL 324.32723

Effective 2006-02-28 · Applies to both

NREPA Part 327 (the Great Lakes) requires a person who proposes to develop withdrawal capacity for a new withdrawal of more than 2,000,000 gallons of water per day from the waters of the state to supply a common distribution system, or a smaller new or increased withdrawal that a site-specific review determines is a zone C withdrawal, to obtain a water withdrawal permit before making the withdrawal.

Source: Full text of law

MCL 324.5505

Effective 1995-03-30 · Applies to both

NREPA Part 55 (Air Pollution Control) requires a person to obtain a permit to install, or a permit to operate under rules the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy promulgates, before installing, constructing, reconstructing, relocating, altering, or modifying a process or process equipment that emits or may emit an air contaminant.

Source: Full text of law

MCL 205.54ee; MCL 205.94cc

Effective 2025-04-17 · Applies to private

MCL 205.54ee (General Sales Tax Act) and its use-tax mirror, MCL 205.94cc, exempt a sale of data center equipment to the owner or operator of a qualified data center, or to a colocated business, from Michigan's sales and use tax, an exemption first added in 2015 running through December 31, 2050.

A 2024 amendment added a second, larger exemption tier for an "enterprise data center": a facility whose qualified entity has received a good-standing certificate from the Michigan Strategic Fund, requires an aggregate capital investment of at least $250,000,000, and must demonstrate that its energy use is supplied through renewable self-generation, a long-term utility contract, or a tariff rate that does not shift cost onto residential customers.

The Michigan Strategic Fund may not issue any new enterprise data center certificate after December 31, 2029, though an existing certificate is unaffected by that cutoff, and the enterprise exemption itself runs through December 31, 2050, or December 31, 2065 for a facility on a brownfield or former power-plant site.

Source: Full text of law