Google’s application for its Teros data centre project in the Parque de las Ciencias free trade zone in the Canelones department in the south of Uruguay has now been approved by the country’s Environment Ministry.
This ministry’s involvement is an important factor, given the reasons for delays to the project, for which Google first acquired 30 hectares in May 2021, after announcing plans in 2020.
In November last year, Google confirmed it would be going ahead with amended plans for the data centre development.
The reason for the amended plans involve environmental concerns. As the Data Centre Dynamics website notes, the first set of development plans raised concerns about water use. The project was initially expected to use up to 7.6 million litres of potable water every day, not a good look in a country that has been through a drought since 2018 – one that reached crisis proportions in July 2023.
Reports suggest that Google has made the project smaller and switched to an air cooling system. It has also said the maximum energy consumption to operate the data centre will be less than 560 GWh per year. It has a contract with electricity company UTE to secure 430 GWh per year of this amount to the project. The project itself will be installed in four stages.
The data centre may benefit from Google’s Firmina subsea cable from the US to Latin America, one of whose landing points is to be Punta del Este, Uruguay.
As we pointed out in February, despite many claims to energy efficiency, data centres still have questions to answer about water used to cool down data centres. This has been a very controversial subject recently in Chile as well as Uruguay.
