In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • Google’s new data center to be powered by renewable energy
  • Taxi drivers go on strike in France over Uber
  • ​Monsanto won’t give up on buying Syngenta
  • ​Verizon hints at new video service

The details:

  • Google building next data center at Alabama power plant site

Google is converting an old coal-burning power plant in Alabama into a sleek data center running on renewable energy to fuel the additional computing capacity needed to process Internet search requests, show digital video, give directions, deliver email and store photos.

Google already operates a huge data center in western North Carolina.

The $600 million project announced Wednesday marks Google’s first commitment in eight years to build a U.S. data center. It will be the Internet company’s 14thd ata center in the world, including six others in the U.S.

When it’s completed, the Alabama data center is expected to create about 100 new jobs, Gov. Robert Bentley said Wednesday.

The data center will rely solely on renewable energy, helping to minimize the pollution created by the power demands of rows upon rows of computer servers running around the clock. Two other Google data centers in the U.S., located in Iowa and Oklahoma, already run entirely on wind power. Google is taking over an outdated power plant on a 350-acre site owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority in Stevenson — about 60 miles northeast of Huntsville. The utility’s board of directors decided to close the plant earlier this year after the Environmental Protection Agency drafted tighter financial and environmental regulations for coal-fired plants, according to TVA officials.

  • French taxis strike after weeks of rising tension over Uber

French taxis went on a nationwide strike Thursday, snarling traffic in major cities after weeks of rising and sometimes violent tensions over Uber. Travelers hoping to catch a flight walked alongside the highway, rolling their bags behind them, as riot police fired tear gas canisters to hold back some strikers.

Despite repeated rulings outlawing Uber’s lowest-cost service, its drivers continue to ply French roads and the American company is actively recruiting.

Uber’s more expensive livery service is still legal but a source of intense frustration for taxi drivers, who pay tens of thousands of euros (dollars) for their medallions and who face customer complaints that they are being resistant to changes such as credit cards and geolocation.

Taxi drivers complain that Uber unfairly undercuts them and in recent weeks nearly 100 Uber drivers have been attacked, sometimes while carrying customers. In one case, a taxi passenger was left with a broken face and black eye after he praised Uber.

  • Monsanto posts higher 3Q profit, pursues Syngenta tie-up

Monsanto Co. reported better-than-expected earnings results for the third quarter on Wednesday as executives of the huge agricultural business continued to make a case for a $45 billion takeover of Swiss competitor, Syngenta AG.

St. Louis-based Monsanto reported earnings of $2.39 per share on stronger revenue from crop chemicals, compared with results of $1.62 per share in the prior-year period.

The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was $2.05 per share.

But Edward Jones analyst Matt Arnold said the earnings gain was driven by a one-time licensing payment from Scotts Miracle Gro, which sells Monsanto’s signature weed killer Roundup to consumers.

“The company’s underlying operating performance was more mixed,” Arnold said. He noted that Monsanto maintained its full-year earnings guidance at the lower-end of its range of $5.75-$6.00.

Its shares dropped $6.46, or 5.7 percent, to finish at $106.32 in trading Wednesday.

Monsanto reiterated its goal to more than double its 2014 earnings per share by 2019, emphasizing the potential benefits of a combination with Swiss chemical maker Syngenta, which has three times rejected its unsolicited offers.

“Our proposal to combine with Syngenta is an exciting logical next step for our business, offering the opportunity to accelerate innovation and support a more diverse group of farmers around the world,” CEO Hugh Grant said in a statement.

  • As it closes AOL deal, Verizon teases new video service

Verizon is launching a mobile video service this summer that would show sports, concerts and other types of content.

The country’s largest wireless provider teased a few details of its upcoming offerings Tuesday while announcing it had completed its $4.4 billion purchase of AOL Inc. The deal is designed to help Verizon Communications Inc. expand in mobile video and advertising as more hours are spent watching video, reading and shopping on phones and tablets.

“We see the world shifting very quickly to mobile and we believe that mobile will represent 80 percent of consumers’ media consumption in the coming years. And the Verizon-AOL partnership will allow us to capture that shifting opportunity,” said VerizonCFO Fran Shammo on a conference call.

There has been a proliferation of online video options in recent months. Many are aimed at people who have canceled or never signed up for cable, like Dish’s $20-a-month Sling TV — a mini cable bundle that streams over the Internet — and HBO Now, which gives you the premium cable channel’s movies and TV shows without the expense of the cable bundle. HBO Now costs $15 a month.

Verizon’s mobile video service will work on competitors’ networks as well as on Wi-Fi and will include ad-supported data, says Verizon executive vice president Marni Walden. That could mean an advertiser pays for some of the data required — video is a data hog.

Walden said Verizon believes it is able to do that under the Federal Communications Commission’s new net neutrality rules, which are meant to keep Internet service providers treating content equally.

The service will also have a “premium” component, Walden said. That could be pay-per-view content.

Verizon is securing deals for live and on-demand content, Walden said. The company currently has the rights to the Live Earth concert, a partnership with the NFL that lets wireless phone subscribers pay $5 a month to watch live football games and a deal for exclusive content with AwesomenessTV, an Internet video network.

AT&T, Verizon’s wireless rival, has gone in a different direction with video. It’s buying satellite TV provider DirecTV for $48.5 billion. Regulators must still approve that deal.