October 28, 2011, 12:14 PM —
Source: detsang/Flickr
Data centers create massive amounts of heat, and Facebook plans one that will be bigger than 11 football fields. How to deal with the heat? Put the new data center close to the Arctic Circle.
Lulea, Sweden, to be exact, about 62 miles south of the Arctic Circle. They have two great advantages for huge data centers: cheap hydroelectric power, and air conditioning you turn on my opening the doors.
Planned to service Facebook business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the new data center plans have been blessed by groups such as Greenpeace. High praise after Greenpeace said in April that more than half of Facebook's electricity came from coal-powered plants. None of that will be necessary in Sweden, but you will need some really warm clothes.
Genius
This is a very positive sign for us as we decided to build a 'green' 'colocation' data cente in Stavanger Norway but we need to get the IT Industry mind set away from having data centres on the doorstep in countries with high carbon content in their power generation.
SailorAshor338 on guardian.co.uk
Great example of harnessing sustainable resources to power a business!
Energy Idealist on telegraph.co.uk
It's actually a green idea cause they'll use much less energy to keep servers cool....not exactly anything new, many other companies have been working on this too
Jesenki Plecic on digitaltrends.com
Not so clever
This data centre will use hydro power which is now not available to send south. As a result, Germany will need to burn more coal. Though I accept being near to the source of electricity helps.
EnviroCapitalist on guardian.co.uk
Now we know whats melting the ice in the Artic.
don55 on telegraph.co.uk
A progressive, San Francisco based company planning to build a data center that spews massive amounts of hot air into the arctic? OMG! Wait, it's in someone Else's back yard? Great idea then. No crazy Americans to protest, smart thinking.
Alan Robbins on digitaltrends.com
Fun
I live in Luleå and I am very glad Facebook did decide to launch a server farm here - it's not only the land owner who is happy, but this will benefit the whole region. It's a sound choice aswell, for the reasons listed in the article - cold climate (good for once, yay!), cheap & clean electricity and good infrastructure.
Simon Stralberg on telegraph.co.uk
Gossip on FB, KILL another Polar bear!
robbain on telegraph.co.uk
They don't have polar bears in Sweden.
jjh on telegraph.co.uk
OMG it's started already then!
chrisa72 on telegraph.co.uk
Will comments on Facebook be cooler soon?
