Inside Yahoo's data center in La Vista, Nebraska
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Nebraska data center development officials are making a move to pass economic incentives to win a massive data center build contract dubbed “Project Edge”, according to a report by Data Center Knowledge.
The company looking to build the $1.2 billion data center campus hopes to break ground in May, with an initial first phase investment of $500 million.
“It’s quite an extraordinary investment,” Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman told the Omaha World-Herald. “We’re one of the finalists, and I think we have an outstanding opportunity to have this occur.” The company recently won a major contract for a Yahoo! data center in La Vista, Nebraska.
According to the Omaha World-Herald report, state and local officials have refrained from disclosing details about Project Edge because of confidentiality agreements and fear of losing the contract to rival state bids.
State officials have already compiled a list of sites that have sufficient power and fiber infrastructure capacity for a large data center, including one in Kearny which is rumored to be a frontrunner in the sites being considered for the project.
Two proposed Nebraska bills could make the state a more attractive location for the project. The first bill calls for refunds on property taxes and taxes on server equipment.
The second bill requests that public power districts in the state be allowed to offer discounted pricing on large amounts of power.
So far, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are all rumored to be behind Project Edge, based on the fact that all three already run major data centers nearby in Nebraska and Iowa.
The report also names Apple as another possible candidate, citing its previous $1 billion investment for its North Carolina data center.
About Justin Lee
Justin Lee has been a staff analyst with theWHIR since 2004. He writes about a range of web hosting and IT-related issues facing the industry on the WHIR website, as well the print version of the WHIR magazine. Follow him on Twitter @Justin_theWHIR.
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