Money · Power · Columbia County, Georgia
The promise is private. The risk still needs a ledger.
Pumpkin Tech Campus is a proposed Cloverleaf-backed site near Harlem. County records describe an agreement tied to Google's Kinetic Infrastructure Solutions and a promise that ratepayers will not carry certain energy costs. That is a public claim about a private deal—not proof that the promise is enforceable, complete, or already delivered.
The county approved a plan with conditions.
The zoning report says Columbia County approved the project's zoning change but required a Georgia Power letter showing that the proposed site's power needs could be met before construction. The reviewed tracker record describes a 500 MW project context; that is not a confirmed utility request, approval, energized service, generation capacity, or IT load.
“Ratepayers won't pay” is a claim to test.
In its July partnership notice, the county says Google committed to pay associated energy costs and that ratepayers would not bear additional infrastructure, transmission, or capacity expenses. Its August announcement identifies Kinetic Infrastructure Solutions, an Alphabet subsidiary, as the private counterparty for the broader county data-center project and describes at least $17 billion in private investment. That is company-and-county agreement context, not a verified public subsidy or spending total; the allocation across projects and final payment terms remain open.
Closed-loop is a design promise, not a meter reading.
The county describes closed-loop cooling and a ban on private wells for its data-center projects. No reviewed source discloses Pumpkin's project-specific withdrawal, consumption, water service, or wastewater quantity. The infrastructure pitch is large; the operating paper trail is not yet there.