State and local leaders gathered in West Memphis Thursday to officially launch plans for Google’s $4 billion data center in the Crittenden County seat.
The West Memphis campus will be one of the most advanced data infrastructure campuses in the nation, according to Google officials. It will anchor a nine-county, three-state “Digital Delta,” set up to become a hub for advanced logistics, innovation and data infrastructure.
The 1,178-acre site on which the facility is being built is located just south of Bollinger Road near Interstate 55. Plans include multiple hyperscale data center facilities, office buildings, internal access roads, an enhanced substation, stormwater infrastructure and other supporting site work. Google will also launch its $25 million Energy Impact Fund to scale and accelerate energy affordability initiatives in Crittenden County and the surrounding area. The West Memphis center, which will focus on cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure, will be the company’s first in Arkansas.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined Entergy Arkansas President and CEO Laura Landreaux and local officials for the event. Entergy announced at Thursday’s “community celebration” that it will be powering the project.
“We’re proud to be partnering with Google to bring unprecedented economic opportunity to Arkansas,” Landreaux said. “Google’s $4 billion investment in its new facility, its $25 million Energy Impact Fund, and its investment in the future of our students demonstrates what lasting community impacts a project of this magnitude can have. Entergy Arkansas is committed to powering growth and building a stronger, more vibrant future for the next generation and has found a partner in Google who shares this same vision.”
Google said it will cover the full energy costs associated with powering the facility, which will contribute more than $1.1 billion in net benefits over the life of the contract and help to reduce electricity rates for all Entergy Arkansas customers. Electric grids operate on economies of scale, so when large customers establish service to power a major new project, they help spread the utility’s fixed costs to operate and maintain the grid over a wider customer base, driving down electricity prices for everyone, according to a press release.
The facility will be powered by Entergy Arkansas’s existing generation-power portfolio and transmission grid, which will be bolstered by a new 600-megawatt solar project backed by a 350-megawatt battery-storage system that will be located in Jefferson County. Google will pay rates that cover the cost of this resource.
“Large industrial and technology companies are increasingly looking at our state because we offer reliable power at affordable rates, and we plan to keep it that way,” Landreaux said. “Large customers, such as Google, help support investments in infrastructure additions that not only help power their facilities but also result in improved grid reliability that benefit all customers. We’re investing in a next-generation power portfolio and power grid to deliver reliable energy that supports jobs, strengthens communities and builds a brighter future for the next generation of Arkansans.”
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