Iceland's geo hotspots could power GOOG server farms
By Tom Foremski - February 10, 2007
I was recently chatting with a financial analyst from Norway about Iceland and the M&A wave that has been happening. Icelandic companies are on a tear acquiring large companies elsewhere. This is a nation of about 300k people.
He happened to mention that energy is virtually free in Iceland because of all the geothermal hotspots there. Very cheap electric power attracts aluminum smelters.
But where there are aluminum smelters GOOG is not far behind these days. GOOG also wants cheap electric power for its data centers, and that is why it is building a massive data center in Oregon, tapping into cheap(er) hydroelectric power.
How long before GOOG data centers spring up in Iceland?
And what is the next step in this approach? How about IP/data processing embedded in the electric power supply. You pay for the electricity but you get the communications/data processing for next to free...
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Comments (3)
I have been trying to point this out to my fellow countrymen in Iceland for a while, but the problem is that the connection to Iceland is not very reliable at the moment. We would need another fiber cable from US to Europe if we where to make this viable.
Posted: February 11, 2007 7:47 AM
Finnur, it is excellent to have someone from Iceland comment on this post.
I think that getting a bigger pipe to Iceland would be worth it given the computing power that the geothermal energy sources could support. Plus, geothermal energy is one of the cleanest/greenest energy sources around--which should be perfect for corporations that want to be seen as doing nothing evil :-)
Posted: February 11, 2007 11:46 PM
Tom, the idea for data centres/server farms in Iceland is indeed a good one – but already in place! The company I work for, Data Íslandia, already fills this need, with all the advantages of Iceland: abundant, 100% green electricity supply, low corporate taxes, and an educated and stable society.
We coordinate connectivity, electric utilities, and with the government and environmental organisations to make sure the growth of this industry in Iceland is appropriately managed and environmentally positive.
Several large British and European multinationals are using our services and connectivity solutions at the terabyte and petabyte levels.
EMC has called us “the data centre of the Gods” for both technical reasons and long term business needs.
Posted: March 5, 2007 2:23 AM