Posted on 12/22/2022 7:29:48 PM PST by FarCenter
It turns out Meta isn’t the only one cancelling datacenters this month. Google has reportedly walked away from a $600 million bitbarn project under development in Becker, Minnesota.
"We are proud to be part of the Minnesota community and remain committed to growing the industry and jobs in the state," a Google spokesperson told The Register. "While this project isn't progressing right now, that doesn't rule out engagement on projects in the future."
The facility, first announced in 2019, was effectively ended after Google partner Honeycrisp Power failed to file the necessary paperwork for Xcel Energy to provide the power for the project, The local Star Tribute reported this week. In response, the Minnesota-based utility terminated its electric service agreements with Google earlier this month.
The Tribune reports that, when complete, the facility would have rested on approximately 300 acres of land, employed 50 permanent workers, and had a price tag of $600 million. But without electricity the data won't flow. In a statement, Google told the Tribune that “while this project isn’t progressing right now, that doesn’t rule out engagement on projects in the future.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...
300 acres for 50 workers? I despise these people. They’re also doing the same for the town of Lockhart Texas, where they’re drifting away from Austin and encroaching on tiny Texas towns for their growth. It’s despicable.
A HALF SQUARE MILE of land — that’s 1/2 mile x 1 mile. A $600 million data center. And only 50 full-time workers. That is truly astonishing.
(300 acres for 50 workers?)
Server farm? /shiny side out
Data centers don’t need a lot of employees, but they do need a lot of energy - a lot of energy. Possibly the energy provider may not have been able to meet their requirements / demands - either cost, capacity or reliability. Or someone dropped the ball….
How many full time workers on a 300 acre farm? What would it be worth (for arguments sake let’s assume the crop isn’t marijuana)?
Most small towns would disagree with you. Offshoring, Walmart, and e-commerce have gutted rural economies. Those 50 direct jobs aren’t minimum wage jobs either, and investments like this bring tax revenue and have a multiplier effect.
Only needed for swapping cables, occasional maintenance and upgrades. Even 50 sounds like a lot.
Agree. Average salary around 80-100k.
“ 300 acres for 50 workers?)”
Hundreds of people to build them
I doubt the data center will take up the entire property. And yes, they only employ a handful of employees.
Probably a good number of them are required to keep the cooling, power, and optical networks in good running order as well as swapping out bad servers.
Yes, that is what I had in my mind for maintenance.
I agree. I could see maybe 20 to 60 acres under one roof, not 300 acres. Lots of room for expansion on the site.
If 99.99999% of the electric power is NOT from ‘renewable’ ‘sustainable’ ‘woke’ ‘green’ ‘eco-friendly’ ‘equitable’ energy sources, then no amount of jobs would be worth the unsustainable damage to the future of all mankind.
Google needs to immediately transition ALL of their power sources to wind and solar. If the Sun is not shining, and the wind is not blowing, Google will have to wait. Nothing else else will insure the future of society.
C’mon, man! Get with the program!
Microsoft data center in West Des Moines, Iowa, 1.2 million sq ft (27+acres). I believe that is considered large by data center standards.
There’s an Apple data center in Waukee, Iowa, that’s 400,000 sq ft (over 9 acres).
Yes
The came here because we also have a solar farm adjacent to them. It provides less than 1% of their power.
50 workers. Meaning one DBA and 49 Federal agents to guard the information. :)
They claim they bring jobs, but they bring more road-destroying traffic than good-paying, taxable jobs.
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