Last week I wrote about the reaction some Dakota County residents had to a proposed data center. So I was easily pulled in when I saw a recent another article on the data centers (Mega data centers are coming to Minnesota. Their power needs are staggering). There are a lot of moving pieces on something that seems wonky but also likely to have a big impact on Minnesota…

Facebook’s parent company is building Minnesota’s first mega data center in Rosemount to house its fast-growing need for computing muscle.

Amazon and Microsoft bought land for large data centers near Xcel Energy’s soon-retiring coal plant in Becker. A Colorado company called Tract has advanced a project in Farmington and is eyeing colossal sites in Rosemount and Cannon Falls. Other companies want to build data centers in Chaska, Faribault, North Mankato and Hampton.

If built, this crop of data centers could demand as much electricity as every home in Minnesota.

State and local officials as well as electric utilities are grappling with how to manage this explosive growth while keeping the lights on and complying with laws for a transition to clean power.

Lagging power supply on the 15-state regional grid has spurred warnings of blackouts starting this summer. The data centers are already raising concerns about whether they will prolong the burning of fossil fuels for electricity even as Minnesota requires a carbon-free grid by 2040.

You need only think of how many pictures or videos you have on your own phone compared to 5 years ago, or 10 or 20, to get an idea of the increased need for data. It’s a growing industry. There are tax incentives for companies to come to Minnesota…

Helping to draw these data centers are state tax breaks on energy sales, equipment and software enacted in 2011. It started as a relatively small program worth about $7.3 million a decade ago. It has since grown to often more than $100 million annually — before the arrival of colossal data centers.

About three dozen states have tax breaks for equipment and are “table stakes” to attract big data centers, said Tract’s chief investment officer Graham Williams.

Minnesota has been working on developing clean energy…

Xcel is building one of the nation’s largest solar farms in Sherburne County, a project seen as a landmark for carbon-free progress in Minnesota. That can generate only enough electricity for 150,000 homes.

Even before the data center boom, utilities were preparing for higher demand as people switch to electric vehicles and home heating systems.

Minnesota in 2024 made it faster to permit and build clean energy. Still, it can take several years to build wind and solar projects and as much as a decade for large transmission lines to carry electricity.

The question is – how will Minnesota’s power grid handle the extreme growth…

If built, this crop of data centers could demand as much electricity as every home in Minnesota.

There are many points of view…

Still, some believe data centers — and the deep pockets of their owners — will ultimately help the switch to carbon-free power.

Google told the PUC in October it’s buying the power from a geothermal plant in Nevada, and the tech industry has purchased a tremendous amount of renewable electricity across the country.

Beyond wind and solar, some data center companies are paying to revive nuclear plants such as Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania or investing in emerging technology for smaller reactors.

And what is the impact on water…

The spread of data centers brings other challenges. Some use huge quantities of water. People don’t want to live near them. They can be noisy.

In Farmington, residents sued the city in an effort to stop Tract’s sprawling data center campus. In Hampton, home to 700 people, dozens packed the small city council chambers Tuesday night, poring over maps and pressing for more information about the 140-acre project.

And there are folks looking at economic development…

And even with the risks of data centers, many welcome the jobs and revenue they bring.