Google announces two new data centers in Texas and Minnesota

Google (GOOGL) announced two new data centers in Wilbarger County, Texas and Pine Island, Minnesota. “We’re expanding our longstanding presence in Texas with a new data center under construction in Wilbarger County and agreements to support local energy resilience, anchored by a focus on water security and energy affordability,” the company said in a blog post. “The data center will use advanced air-cooling technology, limiting water consumption to only critical campus operations like kitchens. It will be co-located with – or built alongside – new clean power developed by AES (AES).” The company said in a separate post that Pine Island, Minnesota will be the future home of a Google data center. In collaboration with the city and Xcel Energy (XEL), the search giant is “committed to bringing high-quality jobs, economic growth and education initiatives to the community.” “With Xcel Energy supplying energy for the new data center, Google will pay all costs associated with our electric service,” Google said. “In order to accelerate clean energy deployment without shifting costs to local customers, Google and Xcel Energy designed a new contract structure in Minnesota, the Clean Energy Accelerator Charge (CEAC), a model that uses the same structure as the Clean Transition Tariff (CTT) Google developed with NV Energy.”