Faribault County Register reports…

While some cities, like Mankato, are putting moratoriums on having data centers in their area, the city of Blue Earth seems to be embracing them.

Blue Earth currently has two data centers operating, and next year will be adding a third one, according to Blue Earth Light and Water manager Tim Stoner.

While most residents are well aware of the first one, which is just off Highway 169 next door to Cabin Coffee, they are surprised there is a second one.

That one is located in the West Industrial Park, and is just north of the Blue Earth Light and Water water treatment plant, and just east of Winnebago Manufacturing. It is hard to see from any street and is low profile, with its building units being just one story tall.

Next year, in 2027, a new data center will be built on property that is west of the West Industrial Park, across the road from Winnebago Manufacturing.

That is on 46 acres that BELW now owns and it will be the site of two companies, Talus Ag and the new data center.

More details…

It all started about three years ago, [Blue Earth Light and Water manager]Stoner relates, when the data center owners showed an interest in locating in Blue Earth.

“We have been working hard on how to protect the community and still have these new businesses locate here,” Stoner said. “We studied their sound generation, use of water and locations. We also looked at the level of return.”

By that Stoner says that BELW has had to create some infrastructure to provide electricity to these new customers, but the benefit is that they will be a large customer of electricity and that will be a big boost locally.

He said an average summer day in the past needed 11 mega watts of electricity. Now electrical power consumption is 30 mega watts per day year round. In the near future that will jump to 140 mega watts.

The Blue Earth Light and Water manager continues in the article to detail uses and advantages of the data centers

The Patriot reports…

Data Centers have recently been discussed in nearby communities. During the July 6, 2026, meeting of the Elk River City Council, council members voted to reject a draft ordinance that would allow data centers into the light and medium industrial district at 19178 Industrial Blvd. It is likely that a moratorium on data centers will be discussed in the upcoming August meeting.

Across the Mississippi River, neighboring Wright County passed a 1-year moratorium on new Township data center applications on May 19, 2026. The moratorium does not affect the proposed 547-acre data center located at 85th St. NE, East of Hwy 25 in Monticello. The application for the project was submitted to the city on July 6, 2026.

The article goes on to talk about several other project or decisions in the area. The local discussion help punctuate the various perspectives on data centers

The Chisago-Isanti County Star reports…

North Branch is trying to get ahead of any potential data centers by changing zoning and setting regulations on “high utility users.”

For now, the city council plans to set a six-month moratorium on new data centers in the city while staff figures out what those regulations will look like.

To date, much of the discussion has occurred within the Planning Commission, one of several committees that regularly meet, report and make recommendations to the full city council. Council member Patrick Meacham serves as the liaison between the two boards and has been leading the charge to address the issue in council.

KEYC reports…

A data center project from C-MN Data Centers Inc and AAIM Data Centers at 2203 3rd Avenue has drawn scrutiny in Mountain Lake after some members of the community have claimed there wasn’t enough public notice from the city.

The city said it had public hearings for the project’s conditional use permit back in 2025 on Oct. 20 and Nov. 6.

Faith Hall, a local nurse, claims many of her neighbors weren’t even aware that the project was moving forward after it was originally discussed.

Some views…

City Administrator Michael Mueller claims the project could have a lot of benefits.

“The data center is anticipated to provide long-term economic benefits by increasing the city’s tax base and supporting future investment in the city’s electric infrastructure. The additional utility revenue will help stabilize electric rates for residents and businesses while strengthening the reliability and capacity of the electric system,” Mueller said.

The city also expects the facility to generate $400,000 in annual gross margin for its electrical utility, which it claims could help halt climbing electricity rates.

Sawatzky is skeptical that increased electricity usage will lead to cheaper rates. …

Others like Brittany Winters are unsure if the potential benefits are worth the tradeoffs from noise and environmental pollution that a large data center might entail.

Faribault’s Daily News reports…

Archer’s data center development would use as much daily power as the entire City of St. Cloud, home to 68,000 residents, according to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

But when the Faribault City Council voted to approve its Environmental Assessment Worksheet on Aug. 12, 2025, it was listed as using the same amount of power as a large warehouse.

“I don’t feel with full comfort stating that we were presented with everything,” City Councilor Mandy Barnes said.

The council voted on Tuesday to allow Archer to submit a revised EAW by March 2027 before its development can proceed. But the emissions are not the only discrepancies with the original draft.

Luke Norquist, a fellow for the MCEA and main litigant against Archer, said the company also failed to provide detail with its air pollution mitigation, generator usage, and noise pollution. In particular, Norquist said air quality pollution needed much more information.

County News Review reports…

With the increase of proposed hyperscale data centers throughout the state, the Isanti City Council has approved a 30-month moratorium on them.

Isanti Mayor Luke Merrill said he added the discussion of data centers to the July 7 council agenda so the council has time to create policies to prevent data centers from coming to the city if that’s the direction the city council decides to take.

Following discussion, by a vote of 4-1 with Council Member Erika Zdon voting against, a motion was approved to put a 30-month moratorium on hypescale data centers within the city. While Zdon said she doesn’t want a data center coming to the city, she voiced concerns with how quickly the industry changes, and felt the council should wait to enact a moratorium.

The Democrat Star reports…

The City of Elk River announced Tuesday that the data center developer who sought to open one in Elk River recently withdrawn their application.

The move comes after the Elk River City Council unanimously rejected a proposed zoning amendment at their July 6 meeting.

Elk River Capital LLC and Swervo Development had proposed converting a vacant, 62,000-square-foot former injection molding facility at 19178 Industrial Blvd. NW into a 33-megawatt data center. They had required Council approval of both a Zoning Ordinance amendment and a Conditional Use Permit to proceeding with their project.

Sun This Week reports...

The city of Apple Valley on July 9 joined a growing list of Minnesota cities that have enacted one-year moratoriums on new data center development.

The City Council approved the pause on proposals for data centers, which are large buildings that hold computer servers. The sites can range from several thousand up to 2.5 million square feet as currently under scrutiny in Farmington.

The cities of Eagan, Rosemount, Inver Grove Heights, Elk River and Minneapolis are among those enacting data center moratoriums similar to the Apple Valley ordinance.

Apple Valley’s data center debate included the City Council’s denial in March of a conditional use permit that could have accommodated a concept for up to five data center buildings with 1 million square feet.

The city says it needs the moratorium to study the planning, development and regulation of data centers. After the study is complete, staff will make recommendations on any new restrictions and/or new regulations.

Quad Community Press reports…

The Lino Lakes City Council recently held a preliminary discussion about the possibility of exploring policy options related to data centers within the city’s commercial and industrial zoning districts.

The idea for the preliminary discussion was brought forward by Council Member Randy Rennaker.

“We don’t want to be a position where the tail is wagging the dog,” Rennaker said. “Right now, we have the ability to look at this from a broad view and, perhaps, put things in place where we can decide what we want to have on property in our city.”

A heads up to folks in the areas. And a different kind of heads up to communities in a similar position.

The Monticello Times reports…

For months, Monticello residents have debated what a proposed data center might mean for the community. Now they can finally see what the developer is planning.

Monticello Tech LLC submitted its long-awaited development application Monday, and the city released the application package publicly Wednesday.

Hundreds of pages of applications, engineering reports and technical studies outline a campus of up to 3 million square feet spread across as many as eight buildings on roughly 547 acres south of 85th Street NE and east of Highway 25.

If approved, the project would be supported by nearly $46 million in new infrastructure improvements, years of phased construction and an extensive public review process before construction could begin.

While many details remain conceptual and will be refined through future site plan review, the application materials outline the campus’s anticipated size, infrastructure needs, water and power demands, environmental impacts and long-term development timeline.

Here are some of the details…

If fully built, the campus could encompass up to 3 million square feet of data center space spread across as many as eight buildings. That’s roughly equivalent to more than 50 football fields of enclosed building space. About 372 acres would be devoted to data center development, with the remaining land reserved for wetlands, stormwater management, landscaping, buffers, open space and related uses.

The proposal would not be built all at once. Instead, construction is expected to occur sequentially over approximately four to eight years, beginning in the north and northeast portions of the property before progressing south and west as demand warrants.

Many of the details residents have asked about — including final building footprints, architectural design, utility routing and mechanical equipment — remain undetermined because an end user has not yet been identified. The application says those elements would be finalized through future site plan and building permit reviews.

Building a campus of that scale would require extensive new infrastructure, much of which does not currently exist at the site.

Utility plans call for extending municipal water and sewer service from the existing system near 85th Street and Edmonson Avenue through a combination of city-led and developer-funded improvements. According to the application, those extensions would ultimately serve the proposed campus while also creating capacity for future development in the surrounding area.

Application documents estimate those public improvements — including streets, sanitary sewer, water mains and storm sewer infrastructure — at approximately $45.9 million, including construction, contingency and indirect costs. The applicant says those costs would be borne by the developer or future data center operator rather than the city.

The City of Monticello has a webpage dedicated to updates related to data center in the area, including past and upcoming public meetings.

Southern Minnesota News reports…

The Mankato City Council voted Monday night to approve a one-year moratorium on new data centers and other high-impact utility users while city staff studies their potential impact on the community.

The issue drew significant public interest, with residents voicing concerns about water use, agriculture, energy demands, climate impacts, and transparency. Several speakers urged the council not to sign non-disclosure agreements with prospective data center developers, while others argued the projects could bring construction jobs and increased tax revenue.

MinnPost posts a letter to the editor from Dan McConnell, president of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council. He starts by talking about 2025 MN Legislation related to data centers…

While other states scramble to protect families from the cost of the data center boom, Minnesota saw it coming and set the standard first.

In 2025, the Legislature passed one of the strongest data center laws in the country, and Gov. Tim Walz signed it. The law puts the largest electricity users in a class of their own and makes them pay the full cost of the power and infrastructure built to serve them. If one of these companies shrinks or walks away, the bill for that stranded equipment stays off your monthly statement.

Every kilowatt these facilities draw has to meet the state’s carbon-free standard, and each large campus pays millions a year into weatherization for families who need the help. Minnesota built a fence around the ratepayer before a single server arrived.

And then turns his attention to the proposed data center in Pine Island…

That is why the Pine Island proposal deserves a fair hearing rather than a slow death by delay. Google would anchor a data center campus in Goodhue County, tied to an Xcel Energy plan to add 1,900 megawatts of new generation. Under the rules Minnesota wrote, Google pays for the power and the infrastructure its campus needs, and the families nearby pay nothing for the privilege of hosting it. This is the law working as designed, on the first real test of its kind.

Minnesota Daily reports…

A halt on the construction of data centers in Minneapolis took effect in July after the Minneapolis City Council discussed the need for more time to understand the facilities’ potential environmental impacts.

The Council approved the halt through November by an 8-5 vote in May. Members said the halt allows time to study the environmental impacts of data centers and plan their development more conscientiously.

However, Council members not in favor of the halt said it will result in reduced tax revenue and may drive away businesses willing to invest in downtown Minneapolis.

Data centers are not new to the Minneapolis area, but community concerns have grown in recent months, President of Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council Dan McConnell said.

The article gives room for various views of the data center issue, including the unions…

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations’ website claims that data centers are a staple for the modern job market and help to create more jobs, but labor protections for workers and regulations to protect surrounding communities are needed.

Resolution 7, a plan created by the AFL and CIO, outlines labor protections for data center employees and regulations aimed to protect surrounding communities. The plan calls for legislation that would require data centers to conserve water and energy. It seeks transparency from data center operators, union labor agreements and policies requiring data center operators to pay their share of energy and water costs.

Hometown Source reports on view of data centers in Lonsdale…

Data centers have become one of the most contentious issues across the nation, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raising concerns about water use, energy consumption and transparency as more projects are proposed across southern Minnesota.

Sen. Bill Lieske (R-Lonsdale) said data centers are “definitely right up there next to the fraud discussion and the affordability discussion” among the issues he hears about from constituents.

Another local elected official chimes in too…

Rep. Kristi Pursell (DFL-Northfield) said she has focused on water usage because of her expertise in that area, as the former executive director of Clean River Partners. She noted that data centers have been “deeply unpopular” in Farmington, where residents have organized against a proposed project.

“I love to see grassroots organizing, especially if it’s against multi-billion dollar corporations,” Pursell said. “They should have a say.”

Non-disclosure agreements

One of the key issues Pursell highlighted is the use of non-disclosure agreements, which prevent public officials from discussing details of data center negotiations. She called them “literally antithetical to our democracy.”

The topic is coming up on both sides of the aisle…

Both lawmakers agreed that data centers are part of the future and cannot simply be banned outright. But they also agreed that thoughtful regulation is needed.

“We need data centers. The reality is we’re all moving in the direction of these higher-level technologies,” Lieske said. “We have to be able to be prepared at all costs. But I’m not saying to sacrifice our health and our neighborhoods.”

Pursell was more skeptical of the industry’s long-term value.