Facebook to build Arctic data centre in Sweden

Facebook announced today that it would immediately begin building a massive data centre — its third globally and first in Europe — in the Swedish town of Luleaa,near the Arctic Circle.

“After a rigorous review process of sites across Europe,we concluded that Luleaa offered the best package of resources,including a suitable climate for environmental cooling (and) clean power resources,” said the world’s largest social media site,which counts more than 800 million users worldwide.

The icy region was especially attractive due to its cool climate,“since cooling servers is a major issue for data centres,” Facebook said,adding Luleaa also fulfilled its requirement that the data centre primarily run on renewable hydropower.

The Luleaa data centre will consist of three server buildings each covering an area of around 28,000 square metres,Facebook said,adding that construction would begin immediately.