10
February
2007
|
12:12 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Iceland's geo hotspots could power GOOG server farms

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...