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Facebook has announced it will build a new energy-efficient data centre in Odense, Denmark, marking a continued expansion for tech firms choosing to store their data in the Nordic regions.
According to a report from Reuters, Niall McEntegart, Facebook director of data centre operations, told local authorities that the Odense data centre will be “one of the most advanced, energy-efficient data centres in the world.” The social giant acquired a 0.5 square kilometre plot of land in the Danish city last year.
The expansion marks the third data centre from the company outside the US, with facilities already in Lulea, Sweden, and Clonee in Ireland. Writing at the time of the Clonee launch this time last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the facility will be cooled with outdoor air with an indirect air cooling process to filter the salt from the Irish Sea air. It is a similar process to the one which Rackspace unveiled in 2015 for its data centre in West Crawley, and again signifies the advantages of the natural temperatures in the area.
The data centre facilities in Lulea are well documented, with Facebook being the most prominent customer of The Node Pole. Swedish data centre providers also enjoy significant electricity cuts as of January 1 after parliamentary legislation was secured in November last year. The rates were down to 0.005 krona, or 0.00054 US dollars per kWh, as of January 1 2017 at a 97% cut.
Speaking to this publication in 2015, Anne Graf, then investment and development director of The Node Pole, explained the importance of the Swedish premiership recognising the potential of the data centre industry in the region. “Facebook has been hugely important, not only for the Node Pole but also for the region, both in terms of jobs created and bringing this industry to the attention of Sweden,” she said.
Danish energy minister Lars Lilleholt said in a statement that Denmark has “one of the world’s greatest energy systems, with large quantities of green energy, high security of supply, good fibre connections and competitive power prices.”
