GOODYEAR, AZ — Redmond, Washington-based tech giant Microsoft Corp. has agreed to switch its cooling system for future data centers in Goodyear and invest more than $40 million to expand the city's wastewater capacity through an updated development agreement with the city that was approved last week.
Microsoft has been planning to build a five-building data center campus across nearly 300 acres south of MC 85 and the Phoenix Goodyear Airport since it first purchased the site in 2018. It has been working with the city for several years to find a solution for the significant amount of wastewater produced from cooling its data centers — all as it continues to build out its campus in phases.
Microsoft has developed a 290,000-square-foot building, has almost completed a 250,000-square-foot facility, and wants to build another 250,000-square-foot building in the near future, but the city doesn't have enough sewer line or wastewater plant capacity to take on more of its wastewater.
Through the updated agreement, which was unanimously approved on March 6 by Council, the company will pay $36 million for the estimated $90 million expansion of the city's 157th Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant. The payment will replace and reimburse wastewater impact fees for Microsoft and allow the company to use 1.2 million gallons of capacity per day at the plant at full build-out, city documents said.
