Google announced the first phase of a $4-billion data center project in West Memphis, Arkansas, an initiative that state officials have called one of the largest economic investments in state history.
The facility, located near the Arkansas-Tennessee state line, will be powered by Entergy using solar power and existing generation in the area. Speakers at an Oct. 2 announcement ceremony continually touched on the need for electricity for the complex and its impact on local ratepayers.
West Memphis Mayor Marco McLendon said the campus, sited on 1,100 acres, would support thousands of jobs during construction, in addition to perhaps hundreds of permanent jobs once operational in the next two years.
“This project is more than just jobs, buildings and technology,” McLendon said. “It’s about the future of our city, opportunity, investment and education.”
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Ruth Porat, the president and chief investment officer of Google and its parent company Alphabet, said the group would invest $25 million in an Energy Impact Fund to support regional energy efficiency “while protecting [energy] affordability.”
“We’re proud to be partnering with Google to bring unprecedented economic opportunity to Arkansas. Google’s $4-billion investment in its new facility, its $25-million Energy Impact Fund, and its investment in the future of our students demonstrates what lasting community impacts aimed a project of this magnitude can have,” said Entergy Arkansas President and CEO Laura Landreaux at Thursday’s ceremony. “Entergy Arkansas is committed to powering growth and building a stronger, more vibrant future for the next generation and has found a partner in Google who shares this same vision.”
Google officials have said the tech company will cover all the energy costs associated with the project. Andrew Marsh, president of Entergy Corp., the parent of Entergy Arkansas, said there would be $1.1 billion in net benefits over the life of the contract for the utility’s customers, including rate reductions. The utility in a news release wrote, “Electric grids operate on economies of scale, so when large customers establish service to power a major new project, they help spread the utility’s fixed costs to operate and maintain the grid over a wider customer base, driving down electricity prices for everyone.”
Google in a news release said its agreement with Entergy was “designed to put downward pressure on electricity rates for Entergy Arkansas customers.”
Special Contract for Power Supply
West Memphis Utilities, not Entergy Arkansas, is the local utility that serves West Memphis. The contract between Google and Entergy Arkansas for the data center project, which Landreaux said would run “for decades,” includes investment in Cypress Solar, a 600-MW solar power and 350-MW battery energy storage facility near Pine Bluff in Jefferson County that will be built by Entergy Arkansas. Officials said that while Google has invested in other U.S. solar farms through power purchase agreements, this would be the first time the company’s investment would be used to support construction.
Landreaux said, “Large industrial and technology companies are increasingly looking at our state because we offer reliable power at affordable rates, and we plan to keep it that way. Large customers, such as Google, help support investments in infrastructure additions that not only help power their facilities but also result in improved grid reliability that benefit all customers.”
Reports earlier this year said the West Memphis campus could eventually house five hyperscale data centers. Those reports also said Entergy Arkansas was considering a 500/230 kV substation to support the development.
Google, which also is investing in nuclear power for its operations, has said it wants all its data centers to run on emissions-free energy by 2030. The company earlier this year committed to fund at least three nuclear power projects with Elementl Power, a South Carolina-based group. Google at the time said it wanted to have more than 10 GW of nuclear power online by 2035.
Google in late September applied for an air quality and emissions permit from the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality for the West Memphis project. The company has said that permit would be to allow for the use of backup power generation, which would only be used in “the rare and unlikely event that the grid goes down.”
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
