By Steve White swhite@nebraska.tv
Christian Evans has his head in the clouds, as he pictures this corn field as a data center at the heart of modern cloud computing.
"And what that is, is any time you type on Yahoo! or Google or search engine, that cloud is
working as a collective resource," he explained.
Right now Kearney's got a shot at a billion dollar project along these lines. State Senator Galen
Hadley hopes new incentives sweeten the deal, and not just for Kearney and so-called "Project Edge".
Hadley said, "There are five cities that have pad-ready sites, so I hope we have five projects that come to Nebraska that come to five cities."
Hadley's bill appears to be on the fast track.
Sen. Kate Sullivan said, "I'm not going to overlook the fact that data centers hopefully have potential for small communities in rural Nebraska as well."
That includes communities like Aurora, where incentives could help them overcome challenges.
Evan said there are a couple of levels of obstacles his community faces.
"Nebraska? Where's that? Aurora? Where's that? It's getting people from the coats to understand we have less hazards, no earthquakes, no tsunamis or hurricanes," he said.
The strong farm economy has helped Aurora, where new homes are under construction. Now they hope a corn farm becomes a server farm, running computers that power the Internet.
"It's huge," Evans said. "We see this as a growth sector and that's why the state as well as Aurora has invested millions of dollars into these sites to get them ready."
Hadley made the incentive bill his priority bill for the 2012 session. It received second round approval Thursday and could soon go before the governor.
Cities with tech parks include Kearney, Aurora, Fremont, and South Sioux City.
Project Edge is thought to be the single largest new business in state history. Among factors in Nebraska's favor is the state's public power, which keeps rates low.
