Facebook to build Arctic server farms

The small Swedish hamlet of Luleå, which is near the Arctic Circle, will be home to Facebook’s newest server farms.

“After a rigorous review process of sites across Europe, we concluded that Luleå offered the best package of resources, including a suitable climate for environmental cooling (and) clean power resources,” the company said in a statement.

The location was chosen because of a constant supply of cooling agent at these farms. The town is not only far enough north to be cold most of the year, it sits on the banks of a large river and an almost unending supply of cooling water.

“The Luleå data centre will consist of three server buildings each covering an area of around 28,000m²,” Facebook said, adding that construction would begin immediately. The first building would be open for business within a year, it said, while the entire data centre was expected to be up and running by 2014.

According to a weather expert quoted in The Telegraph, the temperature in Luleaa has never risen above 30°C since 1961, with the annual average temperature being a frigid 2°C. DM

Read more:

• Facebook to build server farm on edge of Arctic Circle, in The Telegraph; and


• Facebook to build massive Arctic data centre in Sweden, on AFP.

Photo: Houses in the northern Swedish village of Luleå. Joakim Westerlund, Flickr.