Uruguay approves reformulated Google datacenter project

Uruguay's environment ministry approved Google's Teros datacenter project in Canelones department, according to a government resolution published on the website of the national environmental observatory this week.

The project had been announced in 2020 but had to be reformulated in 2023 after concerns arose about water use, among other issues.

The amended initiative presented in 2023 includes the installation of one datacenter instead of the original two, reducing the capacity to a third of what was first proposed.

In addition, the new project includes a cooling system of “chillers” using air instead of water, thus eliminating water consumption, as well as the continuous generation of wastewater.

The datacenter will be installed in the Science Park, in Ciudad de la Costa, in the department of Canelones and will be built in four stages.

The maximum energy consumption required for the operation of the datacenter once it reaches its maximum capacity will be less than 560GWh/year. The company already has an initial agreement with electricity company UTE to provide up to 420GWh/year.

The project includes 32 chillers, an electrical substation, an electrical and a mechanical yard, as well as an interconnection building.

The project will occupy a property of 32.2ha.