Google is breaking ground on a Minnesota data center that'll run entirely on new solar, wind, and battery storage - a sharp departure from the industry's usual playbook of tapping existing grids. The move signals how hyperscalers are rethinking infrastructure as AI workloads explode and communities push back on energy costs. Google's head of data center energy told CNBC the strategy ensures "we aren't putting additional costs on other ratepayers" when the facility comes online.
Google just unveiled plans for a Minnesota data center that won't touch the local power grid - at least not in the way you'd expect. The facility will be powered entirely by new renewable energy infrastructure, including solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage built specifically for the project.
The announcement comes as tech giants face mounting pressure over their AI infrastructure's appetite for electricity. Data centers already consume roughly 2% of U.S. electricity, and that figure's climbing fast as companies race to deploy large language models and machine learning workloads at scale.
"What Google is doing is ensuring that when we show up, we aren't putting additional costs on other ratepayers," the company's head of data center energy told CNBC. It's a notable shift in tone from an industry that's historically negotiated special power deals with utilities, often leaving residential customers to absorb infrastructure upgrade costs.
The Minnesota project represents a different calculation than Google's recent Texas data center announcement. While both facilities support the company's expanding cloud and AI operations, the Minnesota site's self-contained energy approach suggests Google's testing multiple strategies for navigating local opposition and regulatory scrutiny.
Minnesota's renewable energy landscape made it an attractive candidate. The state's already home to significant wind capacity, and its regulatory framework supports power purchase agreements that let large buyers contract directly for new renewable projects. By bundling generation and storage together, Google can theoretically operate independently of the local utility during peak production hours while avoiding the grid stability issues that have plagued other renewable-heavy data center projects.
