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."

.... at a geometric rate....

[tiltowait]

Makes you wonder if this (Business)Week's cover story is right, Is Google Too Powerful? [businessweek.com]

So much cruft

[andy314159pi]

It sounds like the expansion of the internet is making these search engines use alot more hardware and energy to make all of the content searchable. If only we could automate methods of removing some of the cruft from being included in the search domain then the whole process would be more efficient. I'm mostly referring to the seemingly endless amount of automatically generated content and just plain bizarre content that searches always turn up.

Goog-y'all!

[Anonymous Coward]

This should be interesting to see. I've friends in the area, and know from them that real estate was already booming, thanks to the urban sprawl of Charleston (pronounced "Challston", for you Yankees out there). Perhaps some of the massive amount of money that is bound to get injected into the local economy will make it to people who could really use it - Berkeley County is not the most wealthy area of our country...

And as a side benefit, I am hoping it will raise the overall 'tech level' of the area, not just in matters of infrastructure, but also in awareness and education.

Possible bonus: Maybe soon I'll get the chance to go look at more Linux boxen than I'd ever imagined possible in one location, too. :)

We're not all hillbillies here...

[dr_strang]

It's SO refreshing to see stereotypes painted with such a broad brush.

I for one am excited to see how this works out. I will definitely send them my resume. South Carolina is a fantastic place to work and live, and with more high-tech jobs like this coming to the state and the area, it can only get better.

Re:Maps

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Nice locations

[d3ik]

Yes, what better place to build a data center than TORNADO ALLEY.

Re:Nice locations

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to realize Lenoir is home to row after row of shuttered furniture factories that burned gobs of power night and day for decades. Power is especially cheap now!

How much does "power" cost?

[NotQuiteReal]

At what point does it make sense to "make your own power"?

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.

Re:South Carolina

[uab21]

You think it's an accident that they picked the state with the lowest high school graduation rate in the country?

OK, I'll bite, not enough people know anyway. South Carolina has some horrible school districts, but I write this from the location in SC with the highest per capita concentration of engineers in the country, and home to installations or headquarters to more Fortune 500 companies than areas 5 times it's size. SC is bringing in technology and knowledge based industry to dig itself out of the hole it's found itself in, and Google is taking advantage of the likely tax breaks, and a nearby pool of talent.

Happier here than up North. (but my kids still go to private school...)

Re:How much does "power" cost?

[Nocterro]

I don't know about datacenters but near where I lived growing up was a small oil refinery, just supplying the needs of a couple of million people, and it had a small three turbine gas-fired plant next to it. Might have something to do with the fact that here in South Australia, gas is reasonably cheap, and it was a long way away from major transmission lines or, for that matter, power plants. Guess economic feasability depends partly on what energy sources are around to supply your power plant. Building a data center next to a river? Hydro's got to start looking better.

Re:Google: SC and OR; Microsoft: Quincy, WA

[SnowZero]

A river can still help though; They could use river water in evaporative cooling towers, just like many nuclear plants do today.

Nucular in SC

[gatzke]

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...