Google is looking at building a giant Minnesota data center in Becker that would cost at least $600 million and be powered by two dedicated wind farms.
The data center, essentially a big building full of servers, was disclosed Thursday in a regulatory filing by Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, which would play a big role in the project. The Google server farm would create about 50 full-time tech jobs and about 2,000 construction jobs over 18 to 24 months.
The Google facility would be one of the largest private construction projects in recent state history.
It would be located on roughly 300 acres owned by Xcel near two of the company's coal generators that are expected to close in the mid-2020s.
Data centers consume a lot of electricity, and Google would become one of Xcel's five largest electricity customers in Minnesota if the project goes through, said Aakash Chandarana, Xcel's regional vice president for rates and regulatory affairs, in an interview.
"The computing horsepower for supporting all of [Google's] products and services are housed in buildings like the one they are contemplating for Minnesota," he said.
California-based Google could not be reached for comment. But Shane Delaney, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said the company has settled on the Becker site. The 50 permanent jobs would provide "an aggregate salary … of $4 million a year," he said.
Minnesota's reputation in the data industry would get a boost, too, Delaney said.