New Zealand and Iceland as green/ geothermal data center locations
Thor Data Center, cooling and data storage unit, Iceland (source: Thor DC)
Alexander Richter
18 Aug 2011
Geothermal power as a power source for data centers is being discussed not only in Iceland, but also in New Zealand, as cooling is one of the largest cost items in operation costs.
Over the last couple years, Iceland has been working on attracting data centers to the country. The country hereby is building on the fact that it can provide clean and renewable base-load power, while at the same time provide a secure location.
Geothermal energy as a source of power for attracting energy intensive industries and companies, such as data centers clearly is interesting.
So in a recent article that I came across it is interesting to hear that New Zealand as well is looking into luring data centers to the country.
In this article it is spoken with Mark Rushworth, the CEO of Pacific Fibre that promotes New Zealand as “having a great future as the datacentre hub of the South Pacific”.
Definitely interesting read as it also touches upon the point of geothermal energy being a base-load power source that not only can fuel electricity demand, but also attracting businesses to utilize the power offered. At the same time attracting power buying companies to the geothermal sites, the option of exporting electricity through cables is also increasingly a topic. Icelandic national power company Landsvirkjun is looking into the option of selling electricity into the spot market in Europe utilizing a cable to be put up.
For the full article on the idea of “New Zealand to seal datacenters from Australia” see link below.
Source: ZD Net
