Google inks deal with DTE Energy for another southeast Michigan data center

Google is considering a 1-gigawatt data center in Van Buren Township, near the Detroit airport
The company has struck a deal with DTE Energy to deliver power for the facility
The announcement comes amid fierce political debate about whether Michigan should embrace the industry

Tech giant Google has revealed itself as the prospective end user of a proposed southeast Michigan data center, announcing Tuesday that it has struck a deal for DTE Energy to power a facility in the utility’s territory.

Local officials in Van Buren Township, located between Detroit and Ann Arbor, have been deliberating for months over a California real estate company’s bid to develop a data center dubbed Project Cannoli, but until now the planned end user remained a mystery.

On Tuesday, Google announced it is “evaluating” the 280-acre site west of the Detroit Wayne International Airport, bordered by Haggerty Road to the west and Interstates 94 and 275 to the south and east.

In a statement, Google said it “will update the community as we know more.”

Meanwhile, the company has inked a deal with DTE Energy to deploy 2.7 gigawatts of electricity — a massive amount of power equivalent to the demand of about 2 million homes. DTE officials said the utility would deploy a mix of energy storage, renewable energy and grid-sourced power to serve Google.

The data center itself would be 1 gigawatt, DTE officials said.

Google says no new fossil fuel energy plants would be built or expanded to serve the Van Buren Township facility.

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DTE officials vowed the deal would not raise rates for its 2.3 million electricity customers in southeast Michigan, saying Google would cover the cost of all new energy infrastructure needed to support the facility.

Instead, company officials said that adding a large new customer to share in fixed costs of the energy system would “reduce pressure on bills” by $1.7 billion over the life of the contract.

“Michigan is well positioned to be a national model for how to realize the economic benefits of data center technology in our communities in a responsible way,” said Joi Harris, president and chief executive officer of DTE Energy.

Google also said it has committed to spending $10 million on initiatives to drive down household energy bills in Michigan, including home weatherization and energy efficiency programs.

“We are confident that energy growth and ratepayer protection can go hand-in-hand,” a Google statement said.

DTE spokesperson Jill Wilmot said the utility will file the proposed 20-year contract Tuesday with the Michigan Public Service Commission, which would decide whether to approve it.

The three-member body made up of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appointees has found itself in the spotlight in recent months amid a wave of data center proposals that can only proceed with its approval.

In a news release Tuesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Google had “made a direct commitment” to her that the tech giant would pursue a contested case at the Public Service Commission. That would allow discovery, cross-examinations and formal hearings before the commission makes a decision, in contrast to the expedited decision on Michigan’s first hyperscale data center planned for Washtenaw County’s Saline Township.

“I applaud that commitment and its recognition of the significant strife caused by DTE, developer Related Companies, and the MPSC by their rushed, back-room deals and fast-tracked approvals over their Saline Township contracts,” Nessel said in a statement.

Google’s proposed data center deal has yet to receive final approval from Van Buren Township, but faces a more streamlined path to approval than some other proposed facilities because developers are looking to build on land that is already zoned for industrial development.

That means they don’t need to seek rezoning. Still, Van Buren Township has the power to approve or deny a site plan for the project. Planning commissioners voted for preliminary approval in February, sending the issue to the Board of Trustees for final consideration.

Plans submitted by the real estate developer, Pannatoni Development Co., call for three data center buildings occupying about 152 of the site’s 280 acres. Two buildings would be cooled using a closed-loop system designed to reduce water use, while the third would rely on more water-intensive open-loop cooling. Total water use at the facility would range from 2 million to 3.5 million gallons per day, with supply coming from the Great Lakes Water Authority’s intakes on Lake Huron and the Detroit River.

Construction plans call for filling in about 10 acres of wetlands — a move that would require environmental permits and a plan to replace the lost habitat. Developers are pursuing approval from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

Tuesday’s announcement makes Google the second company to seek state approval for a proposed data center contract after the 1.4-gigawatt data center that Oracle, OpenAI and Related Digital announced in Saline Township last fall.

Several other proposals are in various stages of development from west Michigan to metro Detroit. In most cases, the companies behind the proposals have yet to publicly reveal their identity, although Microsoft has announced its involvement in two proposed data centers outside Grand Rapids.

Michigan lawmakers prompted the wave of development proposals in late 2024, when, looking to cash in on a multi-trillion-dollar global AI boom, they wooed the hyperscale data center industry to Michigan with tax breaks expected to be worth tens of millions per facility.

In many cases, public officials have signed non-disclosure agreements tied to prospective data center deals, sparking backlash from constituents who argue the deals should be negotiated publicly.

Amid the controversy, a growing chorus of lawmakers and advocates have begun pushing to rein in data center development, with proposals ranging from a yearlong moratorium on data center developments to the banning of non-disclosure agreements and cancellation of state tax breaks that have lured the data center industry to Michigan.

Industry proponents contend data centers will bring needed tax revenue and economic investment to Michigan communities.

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