Dorchester County welcomes new Google data centers

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – Dorchester County is developing two major campuses with a tech giant.

Google is expanding its South Carolina cloud region to Ridgeville. It will host two, new data centers that are expecting to hire 200 operational employees. To build the campuses, around 1200 long-term construction jobs will be created.

“It’s a good place,” Gov. Henry McMaster said. “We know the future is going to rely on data, it’s going to rely on power, it’s going to rely on water. There’s no turning back. We need to be very strategic in how we move forward. Our state is a model of commerce, conservation, and preservation – we want to keep it that way.”

Google is expected to impact Dorchester County’s economy and infrastructure. Todd Friddle, Dorchester County Council Chair, said the area is prepared to handle the incoming amounts of people and hopes residents will benefit.

“I hope that they hire people from around here. It’s going to be good paying jobs. The big thing about it is, we’ve got the base around here for those types of people. It’s not going to affect the schools that much – 200 jobs. I mean with the amount of tax revenue it is, it puts people in the roads. We’ve got more housing facilities now with 1500 people working.”

Google is working on its initiative to bring clean energy to South Carolina alongside its data centers. Part of the company’s $3.3 billion investment goes towards improving energy affordability and a local watershed health project. These new campuses build upon old ones to make them more efficient.

“With each data center, we do learn,” Lilyan Hester, head of Google’s Southeast Internal Affairs and Government Relations division, said. “Here, we have made a commitment to providing additional infrastructure support and that includes grants to support our sustainability efforts.”

The tech giant stated it is hoping to “run on 24/7 carbon-free energy” as well as “replenish 120% of the water it consumes” by 2030. As for clean energy in the state, Google has reduced energy costs for low and moderate income households in the past two years. Partnerships exist between Google and The Sustainability Institute, Berkeley Electric, and other local companies.

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