Google Data Center Cooling Arrays, Council Bluffs, Iowa

Google broke ground on its Council Bluffs data center in 2007 and brought the facility online in 2009, making it one of the company's earliest Midwest computing hubs. The campus sits in Pottawattamie County along the Missouri River, chosen partly for access to abundant water and power infrastructure. Google has since expanded the site multiple times, with cumulative investment in the Council Bluffs campus surpassing $5 billion. The facility relies on rooftop cooling systems and outdoor chiller units to manage heat generated by rows of servers, a design common to Google's newer data centers that reduces reliance on traditional air conditioning. Iowa's cooler climate for much of the year helps lower energy costs tied to cooling the servers that power Google Search, Gmail, and cloud computing services.

Photo taken in February 2017.