Google has chosen Jackson County as the site for a $600 million data center that will be built on 350 acres of land on the former Widows Creek coal plant. The land is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. According to a release from the Alabama Department of Commerce, the data center could create up to 100 jobs and will be used to house servers that run Google’s search functions, Gmail, YouTube and other services.
“For more than 50 years, the Widows Creek plant has generated electricity for the region. Now the site will be used to bring Internet services and information to people around the world — powered by 100 percent renewable energy,” said Gary Demasi, director of Global Infrastructure at Google. “We see a lot of potential in redeveloping large industrial sites like former coal plants, and we’re excited to bring a data center to Alabama.”
The site is one of 14 in the world, with other locations in Georgia, Iowa, Singapore and Belgium.
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