Criteria for preapplication evaluations of water appropriations for certain data centers modified, data centers' electricity sales exempted in calculating a utility's solar energy standard, other data center exemptions provided, and data center energy generation redundancy provided.

This bill modifies how Minnesota evaluates water usage for large data centers and provides specific financial and operational exemptions for them. It requires facilities that consume over 100 million gallons of water annually to submit detailed preapplication information to help state agencies assess local water availability, while exempting "qualified large-scale data centers" from these requirements if they meet certain filing deadlines or location criteria. Additionally, the legislation exempts electricity sales from these data centers when calculating utility solar energy standards and removes sales tax on their electricity purchases. The bill also defines requirements for emergency backup generators and establishes a new clean energy tariff option for public utilities.