Clarksville and Montgomery County leaders say limits on water and electricity make them unwilling to bring in another data center. Mayor Joe Pitts would oppose one in Clarksville because the impacts are unknown and the water capacity isn’t there. County Mayor Wes Golden says the county has no resources left to welcome one.
The Google facility already running in Montgomery County is a different question. It has operated on 1.4 million square feet just outside the limits of Clarksville, a city of nearly 200,000 and Tennessee’s fifth-largest, since late 2019. 14 News reported this week on that refusal, and on a water figure for the existing center that a nondisclosure agreement still leaves unclear.
A Semiconductor Site That Took Servers Instead
Google opened the center in late 2019. Pitts said data centers were not as prominent then, and 14 News described a community that was indifferent about the arrival. The buildings sit in a large industrial park once planned for Hemlock Semiconductor, which manufactures parts for solar panels. Berms Hemlock installed still border the park.
That account said the data center rescued a site that otherwise would have remained an abandoned brownfield. The facility powers Google Search, cloud storage and Gmail. Servers generate heat, the center uses water to cool them, and the electricity comes directly from the Tennessee Valley Authority rather than through the city’s retail electric department…