Google looking at Becker to build a $600 million data center

Google is looking at building a giant Minnesota data center in Becker that would cost at least $600 million and be powered by two dedicated wind farms. The data center, essentially a big building full of servers, was disclosed Thursday in a regulatory filing by Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, which would play a big role in the project. The Google server farm would create about 50 full-time tech jobs and about 2,000 construction jobs over 18 to 24 months. The Google facility would be one of the largest private construction projects in recent state history. It would be located on roughly 300 acres owned by Xcel near two of the company’s coal generators that are expected to close in the mid-2020s.