Google to Build Minnesota Data Center With 1,900 MW of Renewable Energy
Google will construct its first data center in Pine Island, Minnesota, paired with 1,900 megawatts of new solar, wind, and battery storage capacity under an agreement with utility Xcel Energy, the company announced Tuesday.
The project addresses a critical pain point for CFOs managing AI infrastructure costs: renewable energy procurement and grid reliability. Data centers consume enormous amounts of power, and Google's bundled approach—pairing compute capacity with dedicated renewable generation—represents a structural response to both energy costs and political pressure around data center energy use.
The Pine Island facility has drawn community opposition despite local city council support, reflecting broader tension between corporate infrastructure needs and regional stakeholder concerns. For finance leaders evaluating cloud and AI spending, this signals that data center siting and energy agreements are becoming increasingly complex negotiation landscapes, not just commodity procurement decisions.
Watch whether other hyperscalers follow Google's model of co-locating renewable generation with new facilities—it may reshape how companies budget for compute infrastructure going forward.
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