Amazon Purchases 348 Acres in Becker for Data Center Development Near Retiring Sherco Plant

(KNSI) – Amazon Data Services has bought 348 acres of land in Becker near the retiring Sherco Power Plant.

According to a certificate of real estate value filed earlier this month, Amazon paid Elk River Technologies $73.56 million for the parcel, which is slated for the data center and substation development. Elk River Technologies is a Minnesota based LLC associated with Kansas based Diode Ventures. That company serves clients in the data center, telecommunications and renewable energy sectors. According to records, Elk River Technologies purchased the site from Xcel Energy in April for $7.97 million. It was once part of Xcel’s sprawling coal-fired Sherco power plant, which is set to be retired in phases 2030.

The utility previously discussed developing a data center in Becker with Google, but those plans fell through in 2022. Company officials claim the center will provide Becker with up to $1 billion in capital investments, 100 high-paying permanent jobs and more than 1,200 construction jobs.

Large-scale data centers require hundreds of megawatts of electric power, equivalent to tens or even hundreds of thousands of homes, and utilities often take years to evaluate their requests to connect to the grid.

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