DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – Google is investing billions of dollars into expanding data center infrastructure in the Lowcountry.
The company is using $1.3 billion to grow its current Berkeley County campus, and $2 billion is going towards the construction of two new campuses in Dorchester County.
Campuses in the works are under construction in Ridgeville on Research Center Drive and St. George off Pecan Tree Road. Officials say the ability to use different power and water lines is the reason for the separation.
The company’s purpose is to support the growing demand for cloud services and deliver digital products and services people use every day.
These campuses will create 200 new, operational jobs in the county and around 1,200 long-term construction jobs, according to Google. The jobs are broken down into two divisions.
“You have data center operations to make the building strong and stable so that includes your HVAC guys, your plumbing folks, those that do welding,” Head of Southeast External Affairs for Google Lilyn Hester said. “Then you have your hardware operations side and those are your engineers, your software engineers and your technical infrastructure engineers.”
Dorchester County Council Chairman Todd Friddle believes this is critical for infrastructure in the county.
“This is the way life is, if you turn a light switch on it’s gonna go through a data center,” Friddle said. “If you turn your gas stove on, the gas lines are run by the data centers, so we either can stick our head in the sand, or we can get on the forefront of making it happen.”
State and local leaders say this project will elevate the school district by bringing in an “enormous” amount of tax dollars and enhancing the quality of life for residents.
“This is a win-win for Dorchester County,” Friddle said.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster says South Carolina is known as a model of commerce conservation and preservation and he wants to keep it that way.
“Google is being a very good partner in providing funds for environment and efficiency programs for more efficient homes,” McMaster said. “If all the homes and businesses were more efficient, that would save us a lot of wasted power. So they are going in the right direction and it’s the same direction we’re going in.”
Officials with Google anticipate the Dorchester campuses to be operational in the next 12 to 18 months.
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