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Google Confirms $600M South Carolina Data Center
miller60 writes "Google continues its furious data center building program in the Carolinas. Today the company announced a $600 million data center in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Google has already begun construction on a $600 million data center project in Lenoir, North Carolina, and is in the permitting process on another huge project in Richland County, South Carolina. Google's appetite for large tracts of land and cheap power are driving the site location process. Similar huge projects in central Washington are already transforming the tiny town of Quincy, where real estate prices have spiked, with open land fetching as much as 10 times its previous value."
Makes you wonder if this (Business)Week's cover story is right, Is Google Too Powerful?
Don't like her? What's wrong with her. She's beautiful, she's rich, she's got huge ... tracts of land.
Let's not bicker and argue over who should carbon offset who.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Google Maps says it's 558 miles / 8 hours 10 minutes from Berkeley County SC to Washington, DC. By way of comparison, it's just 7 hours 32 minutes from Tampa, Florida. I would not call it "close". Come now. You're in Tennessee? You should know this part of the country better than THAT. Especially if you want to comment on it. Sure, it's five or six hours closer to DC than you, but...
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
keep in in that it's not just how much the power costs, but how much is available in the area... some areas simply don't have an extra 40MW to spare... Here in Quincy they will be pulling around 200MW within 3-5 years...
Doesn't look like it. I live about a mile from the site. I just looked on Google Maps and Google Earth and I see where it is but the maps do not show that the ground has been broken yet. Trust me, the construction began months ago. They have already cleared a lot of the woods. That doesn't show up yet. As someone in the IT field living just down the street, we are glad that Google is coming... but we do not kid ourselves either. I told a co-worker the other day that an intellectual company like Google does not locate their data center int the state that is 50th in education for the local talent pool. It may have been underplayed but it was said that they are under no obligation to hire from the local economy. Either way. I personally welcome our new Google overlords here in Goose Creek. My advice? Not matter what the locals say, do not eat the grits. I have lived here since 1977 and those things are disgusting. Stick with oatmeal... ya'll.
I thought that liking hot grits was central to the Slashdot experience.
It's like they say, Slashdot has changed.
Seriously, I have done no research, and I know there is an economy of scale issue, but if you really need lots of power, in one location, surely it must become cost effective at some point to build your own generator.
With no transmission loss, right-of-way issues, delivery infrastructure, etc. there has to be some break-even-point. Wouldn't the entire output of a 200MW plant be cheaper if it was just for a single on-site consumer?
Discuss amongst yourselves, thank you.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
South Carolina education is a little deceptive. The schools in the Myrtle Beach area are extraordinary, with high teacher pay, excellent resources, and strong student achievement. Cross the county line, and you find one of the most underfunded and outdated school districts in the United States.
If you're looking for smart, capable people in South Carolina (or California, or Idaho, or wherever), you'll find smart, capable people - as long as compensation is strong.
Most of Google's hires may be from out of state, but they will quickly become South Carolinians through property purchase, taxation, and spending their money within the local service economy.
Teaching them to love Lowcountry shrimp boil will take a few weeks; teaching them to say "y'all" as a pronoun will take a few months; teaching them to refer to all soft drinks as "Coke" takes one to two years. But now I'm offtopic.....
My bet it has more to do with states that offer massive tax breaks to businesses for moving in. I know North Carolina is famous for it, especially with the new Dell facility in Greensboro and Lenovo in RTP. The Dell deal was so good the state could have employed everyone hired by Dell for 11 years with the tax breaks and loans.
In SC, we have the highest percentage of electricity supplied from nuclear (nucular?) power, so I have heard.
This may help protect us from a rise in oil prices, I hope.
And we are building more reactors at existing sites. Not only are we a dumping ground for nuclear waste, we also have tons of power available, and our beaches are nice too...