Initially approved in 2020, the project faced pushback due to Chile's ongoing 15-year drought, which has placed immense pressure on the region’s water resources, forcing the tech giant to reconsider its approach.
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In February 2024, a Chilean environmental court partially revoked Google’s building permit, demanding that the company factor in the impact of climate change on the Central Santiago Aquifer.
The court's ruling followed mounting opposition from local groups concerned about the strain the data centre’s cooling system would place on the already stressed water supply.
Google had initially planned to use water-based cooling for its servers, a standard approach for large data centres.
However, given the severity of the water crisis in Chile, the company is now shifting its focus to air-cooled technology.
This new strategy is expected to mitigate the facility’s reliance on the region’s fragile water supply, while still meeting the demand for data services in Latin America.
Despite these changes, Google must reapply for environmental permits, potentially causing significant delays in the project.
The revised plan aims to address both the regulatory concerns and the broader environmental impacts, as Google continues to expand its data infrastructure to support the surge in demand for cloud services and digital connectivity across the region.
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