Google will rework from scratch its plans to build a US$200 million ($296 million) data centre in Santiago after concerns were raised about its environmental impact on the Chilean capital.
In February, a local environmental court partially reversed a 2020 permit allowing the firm to build the data centre, asking Google to revise its application to take into account the effects of climate change.
Google received initial authorisation for the data centre in early 2020, but the project has since drawn an outcry from residents and local officials over the possible impact on the capital’s parched aquifer.
Chile has been suffering from a drought for over a decade, and data servers require millions of litres of water annually for cooling.
The company informed Chile’s environmental regulator “it will not continue with the process of requesting permits for the project to install a data centre in the Cerrillos neighborhood, as originally submitted and approved in 2020,” it said.
“In due course, a new process will begin from scratch for a project that will use air-cooled technology at this very location,” Google added.