This photo provided by Google shows a company data center in Douglas County, Ga.Gov. Bill Haslam announced Tuesday that Google will invest $600 million to bring the company’s eighth U.S. data center to Clarksville and create 70 new jobs.
“We are grateful for Google’s significant investment in Tennessee and the new jobs that will be created in Montgomery County,” said the Republican governor. “This is one of the world’s most well-known brands, so it says a lot for our state that it will soon be home to Google’s eighth U.S. data center.”
Google acquired the former Hemlock Semiconductor site in Clarksville, which it will transform into the data center.
Construction on a polysilicon plant began at the site in 2009, and the facility was nearly complete when Hemlock announced in 2013 it would not begin manufacturing there because of disputes with China over tariffs and an oversupply of the compound used in solar energy panels.
Officials say the new data center will be powered 100 percent by renewable energy thanks to an arrangement with the Tennessee Valley Authority, which serves 9 million people in seven states.