Why does the new data center in Iceland offer double the greenness you ask? Well read on.
Design and construction of the new Verne Holdings data center in Iceland is well underway. This new 40,000 m² green data center, which is set to be completed in late 2009, is located at the former US Naval Air Station near the Keflavik International Airport.
Data centers in Iceland make all kinds of sense, here’s why:
First, Iceland gets all of it energy needs from renewable sources – geothermal energy and hydroelectric power. So, the massive energy requirements of a data center – in the case of the Verne Holdings data center, as much as 50 MW at peak capacity – will come from clean, renewable and reliable sources.
Second, the cooling requirements will be met almost entirely by utilizing Iceland’s chilly annual ambient temperatures. According to Tat Cantrell, Chief Technology Officer at Verne Global “The mean annual temperature is -0.5°C (30°F) in January and 10°C (50°F) in July. Iceland is very much its own cooling system, standing by to draw the heat right out the computer servers.” This eliminates the need for expensive and power hungry chilling systems.
This combination of inexpensive and renewable power coupled with the utilization of Iceland’s low ambient temperatures is a real win-win scenario. It’s double green – less cash, less pollution. Verne Global gets to save significant money and reduce its carbon footprint.
There were some infrastructure hurdles that had to be overcome for this green data center project to happen as well as some perceptual ones. Repurposing the old US navy base in Keflavik was a perfect choice to mitigate fears of earthquake damage. The US engineers who built the navy base chose this spot very strategically and built all the building foundations directly on bedrock – so the buildings are very capable of handling natural disasters. Also, the government of Iceland had to invest in four high-throughput fiber optic submarine cables connecting Iceland with Europe and USA.
The perceptual hurdles were that Iceland is very remote – it is. But the redundant cables solve that issue. The other issue were fears that Iceland was simply too geologically volatile – lots of earthquakes and volcanoes. This was mitigated by housing the data center in the old naval base.
Kudos to savvy and innovative companies like Verne Global. Who said environmentalism is inconsistent with commerce?
