The Arctic Circle will be home to the world’s largest data center, a facility with a goal of being powered 100% by renewable energy.
Located close to 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in Bellangen, Norway, the facility is within 25 kilometers of large amounts of hydropower that will allow the data center to scale up to two gigawatts of consumable renewable power, which is more than any other data center location in the world, according to bdcnetwork.com. The facility will also make use of wind energy.
The area was selected because of Norway’s cool climate, abundance of technical workforce and its access to fiber optic cable. The site of the data center is also secure – it’s moated.
The Kolos facility is being developed by a US-Norwegian partnership, also called Kolos, who say the site will eventually draw on a record-setting 1,000 megawatts of power. On their website, Kolos claim Ballangen's cold climate and access to hydropower will help trim energy costs by as much as 60%.
New data centers have become more reliant on renewable energy. Facebook announced this week that it’s 10th U.S.-based data center will open in Ohio and be powered exclusively by renewable energy.
And in July, Apple announced it would begin construction on a data center in Denmark that will run entirely on renewable energy. The $921 million project will begin operations in 2019 in Aabenraa in southern Denmark near the German border. It will power Apple’s online services, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe.
