Iceland's data center construction boom begins

Large IT corporations seek to build more data centers in regions with steadily cool climates. This saves a significant amount of money, since cooling in such places is a fairly simple task. The infrastructure of the cooling system can be very simple, and air intake can be carried out simply from the street. That is precisely the reason Facebook built its data center in Lulea. Google, Microsoft and some other companies also began to build their data centers almost at the North Pole.

In addition to cooling, there is another factor that can make even the most attractive region in terms of climate disadvantageous for the owner of the data center. This is energy. Lack of energy infrastructure or its unreliability is a critical factor. In principle, there are not so many places where both the cool climate and reliable energy infrastructure combine (plus low-cost energy). Iceland is one of such regions.


The temperature corridor (the difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures) is optimal here.

As you can see, the climate here is optimal in terms of stability of costs for cooling the data center's capacities. Temperature fluctuations are very small, everything is stable.

So far, not all companies have realized the attractiveness of the region; Verne Global first starteddeploy here the construction of data centers. Not so long ago, the company has already built one data center in the region, in which seismic activity is minimal (the region is located west of Reykjavik). Previously, the NATO base was located here, now there is a data center. Now the company is going to build a second one, on a site of 45 acres.



The company Verne Global has made the data center more attractive, by signing an agreement with the Icelandic power company, Landsvirkjun . As already written earlier on Habré, only 5% of the energy produced in Iceland goes to the needs of households, the rest is consumed by companies, factories and factories. Iceland owns significant renewable energy resources (geothermal and other types of energy), and if necessary can increase the production of electric energy.



According to experts, the energy system of Iceland is the second most reliable in the world, plus the price of energy here is not so high, and even stable. That is why various companies can forecast their costs associated with electricity for many years to come. As for Verne Global, this company has calculated its costs up to 2030. Accordingly, the company's customers can be sure that the cost of services will be stable.

BWM Group, a client of Verne Global, can reduce energy-related costs by up to 80% if it relocates its main computing power to Iceland.

The data centers that are being built in Iceland are protected from most threats, including the consequences of volcanic eruptions, so the work of such a data center is very stable, and the reliability indicator is one of the highest in the world.

So far, many companies do not take Iceland into account as an ideal place for hosting data centers. This is largely due to the remoteness of the region (and in modern conditions, these fears are not justified). Probably in a couple of years, IT companies will battle a place under the Sun in this region, both literally and figuratively.