Minnesota Data Center Intel

Recent Minnesota data center news

• Jul 14, 2026

  New York becomes first US state to impose data center moratorium

  New York has announced a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data centers.

  • Governor Kathy Hochul signed the order into law, immediately pausing environmental permits for projects of 50MW or more while a regulatory framework is developed.
  • The framework will include a Generic Environmental Impact Statement on energy demand, water use and quality, and air quality, and local entities will receive guidance within 60 days on community benefits negotiations; the order also directs consideration of a New York Grid Acceleration Fund.
  • The article also references earlier and proposed legislation, including S.9144 introduced by Elizabeth Krueger and a proposed national moratorium, the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, introduced by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in March 2026.
• Jul 13, 2026

  Tract looks to develop 900MW data center park outside Richmond, Virginia

  Tract has announced a pre-application filing to develop the Tuckahoe Technology Park, an 872-acre master-planned data center campus in Goochland County, Virginia.

  • Filed a pre-application for a conditional use permit (CUP) through VALCO Goochland, LLC for land in the county’s technology overlay district (TOD West).
  • The proposed campus would include 12 buildings, reach 900MW at full build-out, and require more than $3 billion in investment; a community meeting is scheduled for July 23.
  • Tract says it aims to make sites zoned, powered, and shovel-ready for other developers, and county officials said negotiations have been ongoing since late 2023.
• Jul 9, 2026

  Officials in Elk River, Minnesota, deny data center application, consider moratorium

  Elk River officials have rejected a zoning amendment for Swervo Development Corp. affiliate Elk River Capital’s proposed 33MW data center and are considering a one-year moratorium on new data centers.

  • The Elk River City Council voted against an ordinance amendment for the project at 19178 Industrial Blvd NW, which would have converted an existing 60,000-square-foot industrial building into a 33MW data center in the city’s light industrial zone.
  • The council still needs to vote on a conditional use permit, but has indicated it will likely deny it; the planning commission had already recommended denial in June, and city staff were asked to draft a one-year moratorium on new data centers.
  • The facility was set to be operated by Irongate Data Centers; Swervo-related projects mentioned in the article include sites in Woodbury and Detroit, plus an Eagan colocation conversion facing a separate moratorium and lawsuit.
• Jul 6, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

  The Data Center Water Problem Is Soluble

  ITIF has published a policy report arguing that data center water use can be managed through state-led regulation, standardized disclosure, watershed-based review, and targeted federal support.

  • The report says states should require facility-level water disclosures, use watershed-specific performance standards, and establish joint water-energy review for large data center loads.
  • It also recommends federal action on standardized metrics, procurement, and R&D rather than a national water mandate; examples cited include Nvidia Rubin liquid cooling and Microsoft zero-water cooling designs.
• Jun 24, 2026

  Construction employment rises in 30 states over past year, AGC reports

  The Associated General Contractors of America reported that construction employment increased in 30 states and the District of Columbia between May 2025 and May 2026.

  • Main announcement: AGC reported state construction employment increased in 30 states and D.C. between May 2025 and May 2026; Texas added 18,700 jobs (2.1%), North Carolina added 13,600, Wisconsin added 9,000, and Wisconsin posted the largest percentage increase (6.2%); California recorded the largest annual decline at 13,100 jobs (−1.5%).
  • Monthly detail and risks: From April to May, construction employment increased in 23 states and D.C., declined in 22 states, and was unchanged in 5 states; monthly leaders included Texas (+3,600) and Wisconsin (+2,900). AGC officials Ken Simonson and Jeffrey D. Shoaf cautioned that opposition to data center projects and uncertainty over federal transportation funding pose threats to future construction job growth.
• Jun 19, 2026

  Earth’s Follies Week 70: the murky pool of consequences

  Xylb’tok the Martian publishes a satirical opinion column summarising multiple recent Earth events including US military strikes in Venezuela, a paused US-Iran peace/rebuilding deal, and pollution allegations at Elon Musk’s xAI data centre.

  • Main announcement/action: The piece reports on recent US military strikes in Venezuela (targets linked to Tren de Aragua), a widely reported US contribution of around $300bn towards rebuilding tied to a Trump-Iran peace settlement (the deal was reported paused due to ongoing conflict and followed shortly by a reported ceasefire). It also highlights allegations that xAI’s data centre in Memphis/North Mississippi is emitting pollution from dozens of gas turbines and that the NAACP has called for federal intervention (and that there is a legal effort to shut down the lawsuit).
  • Background and other details: The column is opinion/satire (not a primary announcement); it references reporting from Reuters, The Guardian, BBC, The Independent and AP News, mentions millions in cost overruns and hydrogen-peroxide treatments at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and cites calls to invoke the Insurrection Act (reported urging by JD Vance). The piece mixes factual references and satire rather than announcing a new policy directly.
• Jun 18, 2026

  Battery Storage Moves Closer to Data Centers, but Challenges Persist

  DataBank has deployed utility-scale BESS at several data centers and connected two systems to a virtual power plant to shave peak demand and support grid operations.

  • Main action: DataBank has deployed utility-scale BESS at several data centers, with two systems connected to a virtual power plant to help utilities avoid building new generation and improve grid flexibility; Google has announced plans for a 300 MW iron-air battery at a Minnesota data center and partnered with Voltus on a 100 MW virtual power plant initiative in PJM.
  • Context and details:Peak Energy (partnering with General Motors) is developing sodium-ion batteries and claims reduced system complexity and up to 20% lifetime operational savings; operators cite cost, footprint, performance, BOS complexity, cooling, and public acceptance as primary deployment constraints, and note that BESS deployment remains requirement-driven rather than standard across new builds.
• Jun 10, 2026

  Behind-the-meter data center gas plants will raise US energy bills

  Energy Innovation authors Jeffrey Rissman and Eric Gimon argue that data centers building on-site natural-gas power plants will raise energy prices for U.S. households and businesses and that policymakers should require data centers to supply their own clean on-site electricity.

  • Main announcement/action: The authors call for a “bring your own clean energy” mandate so data centers do not rely on on-site natural-gas plants; they cite concrete capacity examples including a Richland Parish, LA facility using ~2.2 GW, a Cheyenne-area project with a 1.8 GW first phase designed to scale to 10 GW, and a BloombergNEF finding that ~100 GW of on-site gas capacity is planned for U.S. data centers. The piece urges that data centers instead deploy wind/solar + batteries and enhanced geothermal to provide firm, fuel-free power.
  • Background and supporting details: The article documents that combined-cycle gas turbines are back-ordered 5–7 years, forcing use of inefficient turbines that increase pollution (citing an xAI Clean Air Act lawsuit), and describes policy tools to implement the proposal including “permit-by-rule”, pre-authorized renewable zones (Texas CREZ, Nevada Solar Energy Zones, Arizona Renewable Energy Incentive Districts), and mentions state laws that streamline permitting (Michigan HB 5120, Illinois HB 4412). It also gives examples of companies already using clean on-site supply (Google: 1.6 GW wind+solar with 300 MW battery; Amazon: 1.2 GW solar + equal battery storage).
• Jun 5, 2026

  Google commits to replenish more water than it uses by 2030

  Google announced a goal to replenish more water than it uses by 2030 and committed $17 million to water stewardship projects across seven U.S. states.

  • Main announcement: Google committed to replenish more water than it uses by 2030, is investing $17 million in new water stewardship projects across Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas, and is reviewing 700+ RFI submissions to identify early-concept projects eligible for co-funding that can come online before 2030. The announcement was published in a company blog (June 3) by Google leaders Bikash Koley and Ben Townsend, and Google reported replenishing over 7 billion gallons in 2025 and expects to replenish over 19 billion gallons by 2030 through its stewardship projects.
  • Background and implementation details: Google currently has 165 water stewardship projects across 97 watersheds and pledged to help local utilities modernize infrastructure, report annual water consumption, and use air cooling or recycled/alternative water in at-risk areas (noting Google states water cooling uses ~10% less energy than air cooling). Google joined the Data Center Innovation Initiative with Amazon, Meta and Microsoft to pilot sustainable data center technologies. Independent findings cited include Berkeley Lab data on U.S. data center water use (66 billion liters direct in 2023; 60–124 billion liters projected direct use by 2028 for hyperscale centers; ~800 billion liters indirect via electricity in 2023), and reports from Ceres and WRI on uneven corporate progress and global water stress.
• Jun 5, 2026

  Google signs 100MW distributed energy resource VPP agreement with Voltus for PJM

  Voltus and Google announced a three-year agreement to aggregate up to 100MW of distributed energy resources (DERs) each year into a Google-funded virtual power plant (VPP) in the PJM region.

  • Main announcement: Voltus will aggregate up to 100MW of DERs each year from local businesses and homes into a Google-funded VPP in PJM under a three-year agreement; Voltus will pay participating customers, described as “turning Google’s capacity demand into real economic benefits for PJM customers.”
  • Background and related details:PJM covers parts of 13 US states and the District of Columbia and contains Virginia’s “Data Centre Alley”; the article references an ESC study projecting +16GW by 2028 and +30GW by 2032 of summer peak growth, and notes other Google-related projects including a DTE agreement (1,600MW solar + 450MW storage) and Xcel/Form Energy 30GWh iron-air deployment at a Google site; it also cites Lightshift Energy deploying distribution-scale batteries in Virginia as an alternative approach.