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Hermantown's council postponed final approvals for Google's roughly 500 MW data center near Duluth after two hours of protest on Oct. 26, and a Tuesday replacement meeting was cancelled.
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The City of Hermantown's map marks the potential project site next to the Arrowhead Substation. It is a site map, not a photo of a built facility.
Image: City of Hermantown
Source · Image from the City of Hermantown project page, used for news reporting.
The Hermantown City Council in Minnesota postponed a series of votes on final local approval of Google's proposed Hermantown data center on the evening of Oct. 26, after about two hours of nonstop chanting by protesters, MPR News reported.
Hermantown's council meets again on Oct 30 at 6:30 p.m. with the same six items, according to FOX 9; the PUC vote is expected early next year.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The Tuesday session that city officials set up to replace it was then cancelled. Fox 9 reported that the city cited early voting taking place in council chambers until 7 p.m. on Oct. 27. City leaders have since said the council will meet again on Friday, Oct. 30, at 6:30 p.m., with the same six resolution items, a virtual viewing option, and in-person seating limited to the first 85 visitors, according to Fox 9.
Google's proposed campus covers about 1.7 million square feet in a rural corner of Hermantown, just outside Duluth, according to MPR News. The first phase is expected to cost $650 million and take up to 8 years to build. The project is expected to use about 500 MW of electricity, MPR reported, which the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota compared to roughly 400,000 typical American homes.
Google has also pledged to pay for wind turbines and battery storage to offset that electricity use, MPR said. Minnesota's Public Utilities Commission still has to approve an electric supply agreement between Google and Minnesota Power, with a vote expected early next year.
Google dropped its pursuit of up to $80 million in property tax breaks, according to MPR. The city estimates $3 million a year in tax revenue and St. Louis County $4 million, and the project is projected to generate about $240 million in property tax revenue over 20 years. Google agreed to monitor groundwater, to find new water supplies for landowners whose wells are affected, and to a plan to decommission the site if it is abandoned. Google says that would be its first agreement of that kind. Voltgrid News also reported on how Google, Amazon and Meta are backing data center host communities.
The council rezoned more than 200 acres for the project in a 4-0 vote in October 2025, Fox 9 reported. Elsewhere, Voltgrid News covered a Water Act permit issue at Google's Muhos data center.
The council has not voted, so final local approval is still pending. Three lawsuits challenge parts of the project, filed by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the group Stop the Hermantown Data Center and a private landowner. A hearing on one, over the environmental review, was scheduled for Tuesday, and MPR did not report an outcome. Without the Public Utilities Commission's sign-off on the power agreement, the 500 MW load has no approved supply.
