The Southeastern United States is emerging at the center of Google Inc.’s efforts to remove its reliance on fossil fuels. A year after announcing plans to open a new Alabama data center powered entirely by renewable energy, the search giant has received approval to construct a twin campus 200 miles to the north in neighboring Tennessee that will likewise rely exclusively on green power.

The cutting-edge facilities are set to receive their electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally-owned energy wholesaler that runs 29 power-generating dams throughout the region with a combined hydroelectric output of 1,650 megawatts. The company generates another 134 megawatts from solar arrays and wind farms that should make its grid more than sufficient to support Google’s clean energy needs. The power bill is likely to be split more or less evenly between its two upcoming two data centers based on the details that have been made available about the project so far.

Both of the complexes are expected to employ about 70 workers and cost in the neighborhood of $600 million to set up, although the funds will be spent differently due to the fact that Google customizes each of its facilities to the local environment. The Alabama data center will be constructed on the site of an old coal-fired power plant in the rural Jackson County, while its Tennessee sibling is set to reside in a facility originally built by Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. as a chip factory. That choice of location should make the latter project considerably easier from a logistical standpoint.

Much like the servers, storage equipment and networking gear Google plans to house in the complex, semiconductors require highly efficient cooling, a consideration that has to be taken into account from the very start of the planning process for a fabrication plant. As a result, the search giant should be able to reuse the groundwork Hemlock laid down without much modification and thereby shave months off the project. Data center operations veep Joe Kava told The Tennessean in an interview he plans to do the same with most of the existing office buildings on the premises.

The new facility will bring Google a big  step closer towards its goal of becoming a truly green company. According to Data Center Knowledge, its campuses are estimated to consume between 50 and 100 megawatts of power each on average, which means that the Tennessee complex will provide emission savings equivalent to taking as many as 5,000 cars off the road. The projected impact is even greater when taking into account the grant program that the search giant plans to launch in order to foster local clean energy initiatives as part of its initial $600 million investment.

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