Data Center Registry

Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson)

Ridgeville, Dorchester County, South Carolina · All 61 Google sites · Every Google case on our tracker

Under constructionSupportedAI confirmedRecord updated October 28, 2026

Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson) is a data center under construction in Ridgeville, South Carolina (Dorchester County), operated by Google. The public record puts it at announced September 2024, 231 acres. It has documented public support and no documented opposition.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Under construction

Operator: Google
Facility type: Data center, AI use confirmed
Location: Research Center Drive, Ridgeville, Dorchester County, SC, 29472
Coordinates: 33.0960, -80.3239 (approximate)
Power capacity: Not established from a public source
Land: 231 acres
Investment: Not established from a public source
Announced: September 2024
Utility: Not established from a public source
Power source: Solar
Cooling: Closed loop
Water use: Not established from a public source
Jobs: Not established from a public source
Public subsidy: Property tax rate reduced to 4% (owner-occupied residential rate) for up to 53 years, Dorchester County, SC, 2024
Community reception: Supported
Source confidence: Confirmed by multiple independent sources or official documentation

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.

September 26, 2024
Proposed
Google announced $3.3B SC investment including new Ridgeville campus (Project Dawson) at Pine Hill Business Campus Source: SC Governor's Office
September 2024
Under construction
Groundbreaking at Research Center Drive and Highway 17A, Ridgeville; completion expected within 12 to 18 months of September 2024 Source: Data Center Dynamics

Opposition and litigation at this site

Not that we can document. Local officials or residents have expressed public support for Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson) in Ridgeville, Dorchester County, South Carolina, and no opposition, petition, or lawsuit appears in the sources this registry tracks as of October 28, 2026. Dorchester County Council approved 53-year tax incentive.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: supported means local officials or residents have expressed public support and no opposition is documented.

Dorchester County Council approved 53-year tax incentive. Part of Google's broader $9 billion commitment to South Carolina through 2027.

Source: SC Governor's Office

Power and water

Google signed 600 MW solar PPA with EnergyRe covering South Carolina operations

Uses recycled water and closed-loop cooling systems per Google's sustainability commitments

Public money on the record

Program	Amount	Granted by	Year
Property tax rate reduced to 4% (owner-occupied residential rate) for up to 53 years	Not established	Dorchester County, SC	2024

Notes on the record

Pine Hill Business Campus, Research Center Drive and Highway 17A, Ridgeville. Planned as part of Google's overall $9B SC commitment through 2027 (announced October 2025). MW capacity not disclosed by Google. The September 2024 state announcement does not break investment out by site; $2B is the combined Dorchester County (Ridgeville + St. George) figure. A $510M investment figure appears in a February 2024 Data Center Dynamics report, citing the Post and Courier, on the 231-acre Ridgeville site, which predates that announcement. Live 5 News (WCSC) reported in October 2024 that the $510 million project would build both Dorchester campuses, one in Ridgeville and one in St. George, so it is not settled that $510M is a Ridgeville-only figure, and no investment figure is recorded. As of October 2026, the second Dorchester campus, at Winding Woods Commerce Park, St. George, is listed separately as Google Winding Woods Campus. Coordinates are Ridgeville area centroid. Google's own South Carolina data-center page states a Dorchester County facility 'opens' in 2024, which is difficult to reconcile with this record being listed as under construction as of 2026-08-26. Ridgeville and St. George (Winding Woods, the other Dorchester County Google site in this dataset as of September 2026) are both in Dorchester County and the source does not name which one it refers to, so the statement is not attributed to one site over the other and no status change is asserted. It is also plausible this describes an early operational phase of a multi-phase campus while the overall project legitimately remains listed as under construction. Newer local sources describe both Dorchester County campuses as still being built: the Charleston Regional Development Alliance's October 2025 announcement of Google's $9 billion investment calls them 'projects that are now under active construction', and Dorchester County's data center fact sheet (archived copy captured 29 July 2026) says 'The data centers are being built in phases'. As of October 2026, no source found other than Baxtel, an aggregator, describes the Ridgeville campus as operational, so it remains listed as under construction. As of September 2026, no capacity or jobs data was found for this site in targeted checks of Santee Cooper (newsroom, generation-projects, board-meetings [JS-rendered, not retrievable], IRP and economic-development pages -- none name Google or this project), the SC Governor's newsroom, SC Commerce newsroom, scbiz.com, Post and Courier (not retrievable), Live5/WCSC and ABCNews4/WCIV (client-side search surfaced no results) and the SC PSC docket system (its search requires an interactive form, which could not be submitted).

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

Power capacity in megawatts
Permanent jobs promised
Which utility serves it

Which document closes each gap

Power capacity in megawatts: The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
Permanent jobs promised: The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
Which utility serves it: The electric service agreement or the utility's filing with the state public utility commission.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

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.

DartPoints Charleston Data Center (CHS01) · Ladson · DartPoints16 mi · Operating · 1.3 MW
Google Winding Woods Campus · St. George · Google16 mi · Under construction
Google Berkeley County Data Center (Moncks Corner) · Moncks Corner · Google17 mi · Operating
DC BLOX Camp Hall Data Center Campus · DC BLOX25 mi · Proposed · 45 MW
Rhodes Technology Park · Eagle Rock Partners27 mi · Proposed · 1 GW · Contested

Tell us about your situation

Living near Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson)?

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Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson) in Ridgeville?

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson)?

No lawsuit over Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson) appears in the record we track as of October 28, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.

How much water does Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson) use?

No water withdrawal figure for Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson) is on record here. Cooling is recorded as closed_loop, which is the strongest available clue: closed loop and air cooled plant draw far less than evaporative cooling. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.

Who operates Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson), and how big is it?

Google is the operator on record. We hold 61 sites for that company across the registry. No capacity figure is on record for this site. The site is recorded at 231 acres.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Google Ridgeville Data Center (Project Dawson)," updated October 28, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/google-ridgeville-sc.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.34.1 (October 4, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/google-ridgeville-sc, retrieved October 29, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

1.Google confirms it is behind Project Dawson data center campus in South Carolina · Data Center Dynamics · retrieved July 6, 2026
2.Google grows South Carolina footprint with new Dorchester County operations, SC Governor press release · SC Governor's Office · retrieved July 6, 2026
3.Google: Ridgeville, SC Data Center (Project Dawson), site record · Baxtel · retrieved August 26, 2026
4.Dorchester Co. community weighing in on Google data center expansion, permits · Live 5 News (WCSC) · retrieved October 21, 2026
5.Google Expands Investment in Dorchester County (Charleston Regional Development Alliance, 2025-10-13) · Charleston Regional Development Alliance · retrieved October 27, 2026
6.Dorchester County, SC, Data Center Fact Sheet (archived copy captured 2026-07-29) · Dorchester County, SC · retrieved October 27, 2026

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