Money. As a technical designer - where I do datacenter design - we have been talking about this for years. The problem is cost. Google has a trifecta perfecta

Money. As a technical designer - where I do datacenter design - we have been talking about this for years. The problem is cost. Google has a trifecta perfecta with this facility's location. Google specifically picked this site for this reason -- but in the end, the reason that Google is able to do this is that they have a ton of money, they were given a good price for agreeing to preserve the historic site, they gave back part of the Mill's land for the erection of the wind-mills, which are not directly Google's. The tunnel to the sea was already there as a part of the cooling plant for the mill. So, this is a straightforward -- fiberglass pipe to prevent corrosion and then the sea water pours over the heat exchangers. The issue with doing this in san francisco is the environmentalists would kill you, the cost of tunneling would be prohibitive and the concern of the piping being seismically sound would cause difficulty. So, it's really a matter of money and politics. The design is great and simple. I would prefer we take the mothball fleet in Benicia and turn them into a huge floating DC. DISCLAIMER: my firm worked on this DC -- but the cable plant -- not the MEP.