Hermantown approves Google's 500-megawatt data center just before midnight
The city council of Hermantown, Minnesota, just outside Duluth, unanimously approved a development agreement, special use permit and decommissioning plan for a 1.7-million-square-foot Google data center late Friday, after four hours of public comment that ran mostly against it. The site covers more than 200 acres of rural residential land. The campus is expected to draw 500 megawatts, which the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota compares to all the homes in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth and Rochester combined.
Google cut the plan to three buildings, capped heights at 33 feet, dropped its request for up to $80 million in property tax breaks and agreed to a $210 million decommissioning guarantee; the city expects about $3 million a year in tax. Three lawsuits are pending, the state utilities commission still has to approve the power contract, and three first-time candidates are running for two council seats largely over the project. SourcesB
Sources
This story ran in the Morning Brief of November 1st 2026.