Hello,
Little Rock!

In short, no. Google pays its own way. Google pays for 100% of the power our data centers use, plus any new infrastructure directly driven by our growth protecting local residents from these costs.

• Helping the Whole Grid: For our West Memphis site, we've teamed up with Entergy Arkansas on a grid stability agreement. Here is how it helps:
• Peak Protection: On those extremely hot or cold days when electricity demand is at its highest, we can "dial back" our own power usage so that we don't burden.
• Stability for Neighbors: By reducing our load during these critical times, we help stabilize the local grid, ensuring there is a steady, reliable supply of power for homes, hospitals, and local businesses.
• Giving Back: In West Memphis, we launched a $25 million Energy Impact Fund to help neighbors with affordability; in Year 1 of the five year program, $1.25 million of this is guided by a council of 12 local leaders—including representatives from local schools, churches, and small businesses—to ensure the help goes where it's needed most.
• How a Large Neighbor Helps Lower Your Bills: Because data centers are large, steady energy users, they allow utilities to spread out their fixed costs—like maintaining power lines and plants—across a much wider base. This actually puts downward pressure on rates for everyone else. Here is how that is working for families in other projects and states:
  • Arkansas: A recent Entergy Arkansas analysis found that the energy initiatives tied to our new data center campus are expected to contribute over $1.1 billion in net benefits. These benefits help reduce electricity rates for every single Entergy Arkansas customer.
  • Georgia: Local leaders and the Public Service Commission have credited the revenue from large partners like Google for the state's ability to freeze base rates for regular customers for the next three years.
  • Minnesota: According to an Xcel Energy analysis, our partnership is estimated to result in $1.1 billion in net benefits for other electricity customers over the next 15 years.

We are committed to responsible water stewardship. In consultation with local experts, we find the best cooling solution for each site - balancing the availability of carbon-free energy and responsibly-sourced water — to minimize the net climate impact both today and in the future. We annually publish our water usage in every metro on our Environmental Report.

• No Ground Water: Given our preliminary review, should a project in Little Rock move forward, we would not use groundwater for our cooling operations. Instead, we would evaluate the unique environmental characteristics of the site to find the most sustainable approach.
• The West Memphis Example: Proving this tailored approach, our West Memphis data center facility utilizes air-cooled solutions explicitly designed to minimize our water footprint and protect local resources.
• Technical Consulting: We are fully committed to sustainable operations and even offer technical consulting on municipal efficiency to support the broader local water system.
• Water Stewardship: Water stewardship isn't just about managing our consumption. It's also about ensuring that we give back more than we use—especially in regions that have a higher risk of water scarcity or depletion. For example:
  • Tennessee: Building on our partnership with The Compact, we funded the reforestation and soil decompaction of 80 acres of previously mined land in Tennessee. This project directly benefits the local watershed by improving water infiltration and creating better conditions for the natural restoration of creeks and streams.
  • Missouri: To alleviate the heavy water demands of irrigated crop production in the Kansas City region, we are partnering on SWAN Smart Irrigation Initiative, deploying a data-driven decision-support platform to help local farms optimize irrigation and nutrient application through predictive scheduling.
  • Nebraska: We are partnering with Nebraska DNR & water agencies to extend the operational timeframe of existing irrigation canals, allowing more water to seep through the infrastructure and recharge the underlying aquifer. This additional groundwater will be available during dry periods and naturally flow back into streams to support in-stream users and endangered species in the Platte River Basin.

Google is leading the transition to clean energy. Google acts as a responsible environmental steward and utilizes clean energy.

• We are actively bringing new, clean energy to the local grid. For example, as part of our West Memphis investment, we are partnering with Entergy to add a new 600 MW solar project to the grid, backed by a 350 MW battery storage system.
• Google signed a 15-year agreement with Treaty Oak Clean Energy to purchase 100 MW of power from the Redfield Solar Project in Grant County, AR.
• Our data centers are also some of the most energy-efficient in the world, allowing us to reduce our global data center energy emissions by 12% in 2024 even as our operational demands grew.