Google Putnam County Data Center

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

1. March 27, 2026

   Proposed
   1,700 acres on both sides of Route 62, north end of Buffalo near the Kanawha River; approved as a High Impact Development Project but still in due diligence/early stage. Source: WV MetroNews

Opposition and litigation at this site

Partly. Both documented support and documented opposition to Google Putnam County Data Center in Buffalo, Putnam County, West Virginia appear in the record, with no clear majority position. Named residents cited cancer/health fears and anger over the March 27, 2026 announcement, while the Buffalo mayor and a state delegate voiced enthusiastic support; no formal hearing or vote has occurred yet.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: mixed reception means documented support and documented opposition both exist with no clear majority position on record.

Named residents cited cancer/health fears and anger over the March 27, 2026 announcement, while the Buffalo mayor and a state delegate voiced enthusiastic support; no formal hearing or vote has occurred yet.

Source: WSAZ

Power and water

Google's project site states the company "is committed to pay for all necessary electrical infrastructure required to run its data center, including substations and transmission upgrades." West Virginia Public Broadcasting (2026-06-04) reports plans for "generating 100% of the electricity needed" for the campus. No utility, generation technology or megawatt figure has been published, so those fields are left unset.

Google's project site states "We evaluate the local water source for each data center, using a science-based framework to assess watershed health" and that "our cooling decisions consider the local environment, balancing affordable energy and responsibly-sourced water." West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports a plan for "treating 120% of the water needed." No cooling method or withdrawal volume has been published for the Buffalo site, so no cooling type or water-use figure is recorded.

Notes on the record

1,700 acres both sides of Route 62, north end of Buffalo near the Kanawha River (address disclosed as 22272 Charleston Road). Announced March 2026 as a multibillion-dollar investment with no figure stated; State Treasurer Larry Pack's September 2026 report on data center tax revenue uses an estimated $7 billion total investment for the Google project, saying the project 'lacks investment specifics at the present time', so no investment figure is recorded; still in early due diligence. As of 2026-09-10, the status was unchanged (proposed). The most recent coverage found (an update dated 2026-09-03) still describes the site as an application under review, not a permitted or under-construction project. Capacity and water/cooling type remain unconfirmed: Google's own spokesperson has not disclosed power or water figures for this site as of the 2026-09-03 update. As of October 2026, neither West Virginia Public Broadcasting's reports nor Google's project site gives a site power-demand or water-volume figure: West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports plans for generating 100% of the electricity needed and treating 120% of the water needed, and that MN8 Energy said it will provide 86 megawatts of renewable energy to Google's data centers in the region; Google's project site gives its 100% and 120% figures only as company-wide commitments (it pays for 100% of the electricity its data centers use and aims to replenish 120% more freshwater than it consumes, on average, across its data centers and offices by 2030). No job count is recorded: officials cite only non-numeric 'thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent roles,' and, as of September 2026, no source found gives integer counts. No AI classification is assigned: sources describe this as a general Google data center / cloud campus, and none of the sources reviewed as of September 2026 specifically frames this site as AI-dedicated (vs. general cloud). No facility-specific incentive/abatement program was found in any source reviewed as of September 2026; HB 2014's tax-revenue split (majority to state, county keeps roughly 30%) is a distribution of taxes the facility generates, not a subsidy granted to the facility, so it is not recorded as a subsidy.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

• Monarch Compute Campus · Point Pleasant · Nscale17 mi · Under construction · 2 GW · Contested
• Continent 8 West Virginia DC1 · South Charleston · Continent 8 Technologies24 mi · Operating
• Project Tamarack · West Columbia · Starwood Digital Ventures24 mi · Proposed · 2.2 GW · Mixed reception
• Alpha Technologies South Charleston DC01 · South Charleston · Alpha Technologies25 mi · Operating
• Citynet Charleston Data Center · Charleston · Citynet, LLC26 mi · Operating

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