Paperwork decision scraps Google's $600m Minnesota datacenter project 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 …
A previous government started to build a dam, which was too expensive for the next government to cancel - so we're building it even though they both agree there is no market for the power.
Of course there is no point in building a data center in Canada - until we get broadband
Google may not necessarily want it since it's certainly not "green" enough.
Becker (in Sherburne County) is home to SherCo, a massive coal-fired plant. Biggest property-tax payer for the city, fed with North Dakota coal arriving by the trainload (same tracks as Amtrak's "Empire Builder" service from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA/Portland, OR).
On the other side of the Mississippi River is Monticello (Wright County), with their venerable boiling-water nuclear power plant. Whether that's "better" or "worse" with regards to pollution is debatable, but it is definitely due for a major refurbishment if not termination.
Either way, with US Highway 10 (Becker) or Interstate 94 (Monti), there is bound to be some nice data capacity nearby, not mention an entire river for water cooling (Monti Nuke uses it; not sure about SherCo).
(Me, grow up near there? Whatever gave you THAT idea?)
Sherco is slated for decommissioning. That's part of the push to bring in something like Google (and, IIRC, part of why some of the land was available, although I don't think Becker is exactly land locked).
Xcel has approval to build a 3,497 acre solar array on the site (about 681 microWales in official Reg units). I don't think they've actually broken ground yet, so wait and see.
The Monticello plant is currently licensed to 2030. No clue how feasible it is for another license extension. Spent fuel storage is probably the most important issue that will drive the plant's viability. Xcel adding renewables to their portfolio was a requirement for adding additional spent fuel storage at Prairie Island (Xcel's other MN nuke plant), so that may also be driving the Sherco solar project.
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