Facebook Starts Building Server Farm on Arctic Circle

Tom Furlong

Tom Furlong, Facebook’s director of operations announced today the construction of a new server farm on the Edge of the Arctic Circle, it’s their farm first outside U.S. territory. The decision came after reviewing several locations across Europe.

Facebook confirmed it picked the Northern Swedish city of Lulea as their Server farm haven because of the cold climate, crucial for keeping the servers cool it also provides them with access to renewable energy from nearby hydropower facilities.

“Facebook has more users outside the U.S. than inside,” Tom Furlong. The director of operations added that European users would have a better performance in the site from a node near them.

The Lulea data centre, located at 100 km south of the Arctic Circle, will consist of three 300,000 square foot server buildings. Its completion is scheduled by 2014. The site will require 120 MW of energy, fully derived from hydropower.

(AV)

AP