Inter Newscast
Some three-quarters of Swedenâs electricity comes from zero-carbon sources, and an astounding 98% of Norwayâs. Thatâs a big reason why tech companies are increasingly turning to the Nordics to build the power-guzzling data centers that house the worldâs rapidly growing masses of selfies, Facebook posts, pet videos, Google Docs and emails.
Demand was strong even before the pandemic. In 2018, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the regionâs main body for intergovernmental cooperation, estimated that the Nordics could attract annual investment of â¬2-4.3 billion for the construction of data centers by 2025.
Facebook now has data storage centers in Lulea in northern Sweden and completed another in Denmark in September 2019. Google has centers in Hamina, Finland, and Fredericia, Denmark, and opened another in the Netherlands (technically just outside the region) this month. Amazonâs AMZN AWS launched a data center in Stockholm in 2018. Average data generation per capita was forecast in 2018 to increase to 72 gigabytes in 2025, compared with the then-current per capita rate of just four gigabytes, according to the Nordic Council of Ministers. And that was before the pandemic goosed demand for data and green power.
Link: https://internewscast.com/awash-in-renewable-energy-nordics-beckon-to-power-guzzling-data-centers/