Google plans its largest Asian data center in Andhra Pradesh
What's the story
Google is set to invest a whopping $6 billion in a new 1-gigawatt (GW) data center in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The facility will be the largest of its kind in Asia, both in terms of capacity and investment size. The project is part of Google's broader multi-billion-dollar expansion plan for its data center portfolio across Asia, including countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Sustainable investment
Data center to run on renewable energy
The new data center in Visakhapatnam will also include $2 billion worth of renewable energy capacity. This green energy will be used to power the facility, two government sources from Andhra Pradesh told Reuters. The move is part of Google's commitment to sustainability and its strategy to build data centers that are environmentally friendly while meeting high-volume power requirements.
Future plans
Andhra Pradesh plans to build 6GW data centers
Andhra Pradesh's IT minister, Nara Lokesh, has said that the state has already secured investments in data centers with a total capacity of 1.6GW. The state plans to build 6GW of data centers over the next five years, starting from nearly zero today. He expects these initial data centers to be operational within 24 months, surpassing India's current total operational capacity of 1.4GW.
Infrastructure development
Energy infrastructure upgrades for data centers
Lokesh also revealed that Andhra Pradesh is working on building up its energy infrastructure to meet the sustainability requirements of data centers. He expects power generation capacity requirements from this electricity-intensive industry to go as high as 10GW over the next five years. Some of this additional capacity will be coal-fired, but most will be green energy, he added.