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Geothermal power and cooling for data centres in Iceland

Geothermal power and cooling for data centres in Iceland Northern Lights in Iceland (source: flickr/ totalpodcastrophe, creative commons)
Francisco Rojas 7 Apr 2015

The land of fire and ice wants to be the global hub for tech companies' data centres, thanks to its renewable energy and cool temperatures.

All big tech companies require huge data centres to serve their customers. Two of the main issues for these centres are the need for efficient cooling to keep their equipment running effectively and the massive amount of energy that servers require. These two generate some issues, making tech companies, traditionally seen as green, clean firms actually large generators of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, due to the huge amount of energy needed to run their equipment.

Iceland is trying to show said companies that it is the solution to both of these problems, according to a recent post in Techworld.

According to the same source, Iceland’s Minister for Industry  “Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir told Techworld: “We can feel that there’s growing interest. There are an increasing number of data centre companies coming here. You see the investment with Verne Global.” When asked if she would like to see a company like Google or Facebook building a data centre in Iceland, she replied with: “Of course, of course.” There are at least five large data centres in Iceland now and Árnadóttir said the country’s national power company, Landsvirkjun, is in talks with 10 to 12 others that are interested in opening up facilities in the region

To read the full article, please follow the link below.

Source: Techworld