Google breathes new life in old coal plant
TVA will soon shutter the last unit of its oldest coal-fired power plant in Alabama. But in its place, Google is planning to build a $600 million data processing center.
Google said it is eager to use the transmission network TVA has at its Widows Creek Fossil Plant to distribute web traffic data from a new data center, one of only 14 such facilities Google operates around the globe. The center will employ 75 to 100 persons and be built on the riverfront site of TVA’s 63-year-old Widows Creek Fossil Plant near Bridgeport, Alabama, which once had more than 500 workers operating eight coal-fired generators.
Alabama officials have been trying to recruit a major data processing center to the state for the past three years since the Legislature in 2012 passed the Alabama Data Processing Center Economic Incentive Enhancement Act.
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