Google has announced plans to build its 15th global data center at the former Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Clarksville, which once used to be home to the Hemlock Semiconductor company, Google has set aside $600 million for this purpose. The location has already been acquired by Hemlock which will then be transformed into its newest global data center to service Google’s search engine and overall app capacity.
The TVA is going to provide electricity for this massive data center while Google is going to make use of existing infrastructure at Hemlock’s old facility. Apparently Google will incorporate new technologies which will make it the world’s most technologically advanced data center.
TVA president and CEO Bill Johnson said: “Google is a household name, with a history of being great community partners. Today we recognize a notable result of the ongoing collaboration among state and local government, the business community and TVA to attract good jobs and sustainable investments to our region.”
This deal will also enable Google to discover new renewable energy projects and then work with wholesale power distributors in the region to bring newly-produced energy to the grid.
Setting up a data center isn’t as easy as it sounds though and Google rightly points out that it could be years before the new one starts operating. In the first phase about 70 people which will include engineers, mechanics, electricians and others will be employed before work begins and the team is expanded to bring in more people as the data center eventually gets up and running.
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