Data-center law in Minnesota

Minn. Stat. § 462.357

Applies to both

Authorizes Minnesota municipalities to adopt zoning ordinances and to require a conditional use or special use permit for a use, such as a data center, that a zoning district allows only by exception. Local rezonings and conditional-use approvals for data centers proceed under this section. The section has been amended repeatedly since its original enactment; no single commencement date for the general zoning-authority grant is confirmed in the primary text.

Source: Full text of law

Minn. Stat. § 116D.04

Applies to both

Requires an environmental assessment worksheet, and where that worksheet shows a project may have the potential for significant environmental effects, an environmental impact statement, before a state or local governmental unit may issue a permit or approve a project. The review reaches any project meeting the size and impact thresholds set by rule, including a qualifying data-center construction project, with no data-center-specific overlay.

The section has been amended repeatedly since 1973; no single commencement date for the general review requirement is confirmed in the primary text.

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Minn. Stat. § 216B.1623 (2025 1st Sp. Sess. c 12 s 10)

Effective 2025-06-15 · Applies to private

Requires the Public Utilities Commission to make each public utility offer commercial and industrial customers, which can include a data center operator, a clean energy and capacity tariff under a special contract.

The tariff must be optional, must let a participating customer elect to serve some or all of its energy or capacity usage from new clean energy or capacity resources while maintaining reliability, must require the customer to pay the proportional costs the new resources cause, including grid costs, and must prohibit shifting costs between participating and non-participating customers in either direction.

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Minn. Stat. § 216B.72 (2025 1st Sp. Sess. c 12 s 16)

Effective 2025-06-15 · Applies to private

The commissioner of commerce must collect an annual fee from a qualified large-scale data center (the same 25,000-square-foot, $250,000,000-investment tier defined for the sales tax exemption at section 297A.68, subdivision 42), deposited into the energy and conservation account.

The fee is scaled to the data center's peak electric demand as arranged with its utility: $2,000,000 for 100 to 250 MW, $3,000,000 for above 250 MW to below 500 MW, $4,000,000 for 500 MW to below 750 MW, and $5,000,000 for 750 MW or more. Fee data is classified as nonpublic.

Source: Full text of law

Minn. Stat. §§ 216B.1622, 216B.02, subd. 12 (2025 1st Sp. Sess. c 12 ss 8, 9)

Effective 2025-06-15 · Applies to private

By December 15, 2026, the Public Utilities Commission must define by order a very-large-customer class or subclass for each public utility, in a rate case or another proceeding.

The commission may then approve, modify, or reject a tariff or electric service agreement between a utility and a very-large customer, such as a large data center, but must evaluate it against four required outcomes: that costs attributable to the very-large-customer class are assigned to that class, that the utility's plan to serve the added load meets the state's renewable and solar energy standards without seeking a delay of those standards, that the tariff or agreement protects other customers from stranded costs caused by serving the very-large customer, and any other outcome the commission finds important to the public interest.

The section does not apply to an existing, renewed, or extended service agreement of a customer already meeting the very-large-customer threshold, or to a very-large customer that has taken service from the utility since before 2020.

Source: Full text of law

Minn. Stat. § 103G.271, subd. 5b (2025 1st Sp. Sess. c 12 s 4)

Effective 2025-06-15 · Applies to private

In issuing a new or modified water-use permit to a data center whose proposed new or additional consumptive use exceeds 100,000,000 gallons a year, or an existing permit under which the permittee intends to supply more than that volume to a data center, the Department of Natural Resources must ensure that public health, safety, and welfare are adequately protected, that water-conservation and efficiency measures (efficient fixtures, recycling before discharge, partnering with local utilities to reuse discharged water, reclaimed water, closed-loop cooling systems, watershed restoration) are reasonably considered, and that water-use conflicts are addressed under the department's existing conflict rule.

The commissioner may require the applicant to conduct an aquifer test if needed to confirm the public-health, safety, and welfare requirement is met.

Source: Full text of law

Minn. Stat. § 326B.101 et seq.

Applies to both

The State Building Code governs the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, and use of buildings and other structures to which it applies, administered by the commissioner of labor and industry and enforced by local building officials. A data-center building permits under this code. The section has been amended repeatedly since its original enactment; no single commencement date for the general building-code grant is confirmed in the primary text.

Source: Full text of law

Minn. Stat. § 116.07, subd. 4a

Applies to both

The Pollution Control Agency may issue, continue, or deny a permit, under conditions it prescribes for pollution prevention, for the emission of air contaminants or for installing or operating an emission facility or air-contaminant treatment facility. A data center's backup generator fleet permits under this authority. Subdivision 4a has been amended repeatedly since its original enactment; no single commencement date for the general permitting grant is confirmed in the primary text.

Source: Full text of law

Minn. Stat. § 297A.68, subd. 42 (2025 1st Sp. Sess. c 12 s 17)

Applies to private

Exempts purchases of enterprise information technology equipment and computer software for a qualifying data center from Minnesota sales and use tax, refunded through the standard refund process.

Minnesota recognizes three qualifying tiers: a qualified data center (at least 25,000 square feet, at least $30,000,000 invested in construction or refurbishment, equipment, and software within a 48-month window beginning no sooner than July 1, 2012), a qualified refurbished data center (the same footprint, at least $50,000,000 invested within 24 months), and, added by the 2025 First Special Session, a qualified large-scale data center (at least 25,000 square feet, at least $250,000,000 invested collectively by the facility and its tenants within a 60-month window beginning after June 30, 2025).

A qualifying facility may claim the exemption for 35 years from its first qualifying purchase, and the certification window for all three tiers closes before July 1, 2042. The 2025 amendment also added a prevailing-wage requirement for laborers and mechanics constructing or refurbishing a qualified large-scale data center. The certifying agency is the Department of Employment and Economic Development, which reports qualifying facilities to the Department of Revenue.

The subdivision stacks amendments from 2011 forward, so no single commencement date covers the exemption as a whole; the large-scale tier and prevailing-wage requirement added in 2025 apply to sales and purchases made after June 30, 2025.

Source: Full text of law