Google Clarksville data center, Clarksville, Tennessee

Google's data center in Clarksville, in Montgomery County, Tennessee, has run since 2019 on the former Hemlock Semiconductor site, and it is now the benchmark for new county rules written because local officials doubt the area could support another one its size. By September 2026 the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission had approved the county's first data center zoning rules and sent them to the County Commission.

Google announced that it had bought the Hemlock site, roughly 1,300 acres, and would invest $600 million and create 70 jobs in what was then its eighth U.S. data center. Governor Bill Lee opened the site on November 6, 2019. Google said it would reuse many of the existing office buildings, and the state said the site would be powered by renewable energy under an arrangement with the Tennessee Valley Authority. Google later signed a deal with TVA for 413 megawatts of solar power from new farms in Tennessee and Alabama to serve the Clarksville site and its Jackson County, Alabama data center. Google says it has invested more than $6 billion in Tennessee since the Montgomery County data center was built.

The Google site has largely avoided controversy. "It's got a lot of buffer from the community around there. It's kind of set out of the way, and that one doesn't seem to bother anybody," said Jeff Tyndall, director of the regional planning commission. But when another major technology company recently explored a large facility in the county, officials decided the zoning rules needed work, and the project did not go ahead. "I don't think at this point our community would have the water infrastructure to support another site the size of Google," Tyndall said. County Mayor Wes Golden said he would have concerns about another large data center "because of the amount of resources".

The proposed amendment would allow data centers only in industrial districts through a review process, on sites of 10 to 100 acres, with a noise mitigation plan, noise limits at neighboring property lines, disclosure of water sources and use, and confirmation from electric and gas providers that capacity exists. Tyndall said noise appears to be the largest complaint about data centers. The rules would not apply to Google's existing operations, but any future expansion of the Google site would have to meet them if they are adopted.

The Montgomery County Commission is expected to vote on the amendment at its next formal meeting.