Facebook has just announced that the social networking site plans to build its latest data centre in Lapland, Sweden. No, it’s not because they have been lured by Father Christmas – it’s actually an ideal climate for an energy efficient data centre.
The brand new data centre will be the first outside of the US, and the location means that the new data centre can be cooled simply by using the outside air for up to 10 months a year. The new facility will be the processing all data from users across Europe, Africa and the Middle East and the building once completed will span an impressive 30,000 feet.
Up until 2009, Facebook leased space in data centres from various companies, but as the social networking site is growing as such as massive rate, Facebook took the decision to start designing and building its own data centres – including the design of the building itself, right down to the servers.
The new data centre in Lapland will require 70% less generator power and will also benefit from Lulea’s electric, which happens to be one of the cheapest in Europe.
With energy efficiency and carbon footprint being top of the agenda for a lot of tech companies, it’s good to see that Facebook are taking a pro-active approach at not only saving money, but also being easier on the environment.
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