Technology and Scienceupdated 1h ago2 min read
Van Buren Township Approves Google Project Cannoli Hyperscale Data Center Near Detroit Metro Airport
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Van Buren Township approved plans for Google's 1-gigawatt hyperscale data center. Campus covers about 282 acres north of I-94 near Detroit Metro Airport.
Michigan approves Google campus
Van Buren Township officials approved the final site plan for Google’s proposed hyperscale data center near the Detroit Metro Airport, clearing the way for construction of Michigan’s second hyperscale facility. Google expects the 1-gigawatt data center, dubbed Project Cannoli, to start drawing power by late 2027, and state environmental regulators approved wetland permits for the project in August. The Van Buren Township Planning Commission approved the plan in a 5-1 vote after nearly an hour of public comment, and the vote followed a local approval process that began last year.
Ashley Shukait said crews were “behind our homes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m, six to seven days a week,” and she said dust had been coming into her home since August and was “only getting worse.” Mahmud Iqbal said the building lacked functioning fire escapes. citations
Energy, water, and tax deals
DTE Energy secured a 20-year contract for electricity for the data center after state utility regulators approved it on Oct. 1, and the contract commits Google to pay for the build-out of 480-megawatts of energy storage.
The facility will draw up to 3.6 million gallons per day from the Great Lakes Water Authority, which has 706 million gallons per day of surplus capacity, and the authority draws its water from Lake Huron and the Detroit River.
Google is expected to take advantage of a 2024 law that exempts qualifying data centers from Michigan’s 6% sales and use tax, and township and Wayne County officials agreed to charge the facility half-price on local taxes.
Pannatoni Data Centers President Adam Kramer called the project “an incredible generational investment from one of the best companies in the world into this community.”
The contract also requires Google to pay for no less than 80% of the power it claims to need and imposes steep penalties for prematurely terminating the contract.
Debate over AI data centers
Paris Marx told Democracy Now! that tech companies “completely throw their targets out the window in order to pursue generative AI and this data center buildout,” and he said some companies pivoted to building “on-site gas plants.”
Marx argued that tech companies “want us to believe” that AI models are “starting to become so powerful that within 10 years they could decide that they want to wipe out humanity or a significant chunk of humanity,” and he called that “a mix of science fiction and delusion.”
In Illinois, the Champaign County board unanimously approved a resolution on Oct. 13 prohibiting tax abatements for hyperscale data center construction, and the resolution states that “The policy of Champaign County, Illinois shall be to not negotiate any property tax abatement agreement.”
District 3 Republican John Farney said during the meeting, “We just need to say, if your idea is so great, you don’t need to have us help you finance it.”
In Kentucky, Mason County Fiscal Court unanimously approved plans to contract with Meta for a hyperscale facility, and Judge-Executive Owen McNeill said the project would bring “construction and trades, jobs, a guaranteed minimum of 400 high-paying career-making jobs.”