With the new addition of 7 Brew, Cookout, Wawa, and First Watch in Salem, the Roanoke Valley has exciting new improvements that brings business to the area.
On June 20, Google announced plans to continue the area’s development. They purchased 312 acres of an industrial park in Botetourt County with plans to build a new data center.
While this is exciting news, and is sure to benefit business and employment in the Roanoke area, there have been several concerns from local utility companies as well as citizens about the water and energy demand that this might bring to the Roanoke Valley.
According to Botetourt County, as part of the agreement, Google will be required to support local utilities to improve infrastructure for the data center.
A sustainable energy company, Rocky Forge Wind, has also made plans to build a wind farm in the Rockbridge area. This is close to Botetourt and Alleghany County, which will make it easy for Google to utilize the energy produced by this farm to support their adjacent data center. Infrastructure improvements may also be made to the Appalachian Power grid for the center as well. However, the energy source supplying the center has not been decided upon yet.
While the energy source fueling the center is still undecided, Google has decided on a water utility company. The Western Virginia Water Authority, one of the suppliers of water and wastewater services in the Roanoke Valley has agreed to two contracts with Google to support the data center, according to WDBJ7 News. The company estimates the center will require 8 million gallons of water daily, and Google will pay for infrastructure improvements to compensate for this large demand.
This water demand is created by the need for a cooling system within data centers. Google has pledged to make this a more sustainable process, as it is a large supply of water used for nonportable functions. The Western Virginia Water Authority will aid them in this endeavor, by placing research into finding a new water source, or potentially using treated wastewater for the cooling system, according to the company’s CEO Mike McEvoy.
Infrastructure improvements, as well as the presence of a large company such as Google will bring new and exciting changes to the Roanoke area.
Kara Hopkins
Staff Reporter
Sources: Roanoke Rambler, Rocky Forge Wind, The Keyword, WDBJ7 News
