Google and Facebook choose Finland for data centers.
Nordic countries have weathered the economic downturn fairly well, certainly better than their Southern Europe compatriots. Now, they're poised to reap a windfall in server farms:
Finlandâ??s chilly weather might sometimes be depressing for residents and visitors, but itâ??s the major reason why the country is suddenly the hot new locale for green data centers. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that following Googleâ??s construction of its mega, green data center in Finland this year, other Internet companies are following suit, including an undisclosed U.S. Internet company widely believe to be Facebook.The chief reason for the sudden interest in using the country as a data center haven is the cold weather. Internet giants like Google are starting to incorporate more and more outside air cooling, using the environment to cool servers, instead of inefficient, power-hungry chillers. The traditionally used chillers can suck up to half of the energy consumption of the entire data center, so eliminating them and turning to the outside air for cooling can reduce the overall energy consumption and energy costs of the data center.
