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Powered by fjord: Norway’s new datacenter

By | December 22, 2011, 6:26 AM PST

Datacenters use massive amounts of energy. Cooling them requires even more of it. So why not use natural resources to ease the pain?

Norway’s Green Mountain Data Center is doing just that. The facility plans to use cold water from a nearby fjord to cool its computers.

It’s not the only natural feature of the facility, either: the datacenter is located inside concrete buildings within caves carved into the side of a mountain on the island of Rennesoy. What is already naturally cool will be even cooler once the 46-degree-Fahrenheit (8-degree-Celsius) fjord water comes into the picture.

Norwegian shipping firm Smedvig, IT services firm ErgoGroup and utility company Lyse Energi are behind the project, located in halls once used as a storage area for NATO ammunition.

The project will begin construction in January, with a phase that encompasses 75,000 sq. ft. of space.

A look, in a video:

[via DataCenterKnowledge, Slashdot, Gizmodo]

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Andrew Nusca

About Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca is the editor of SmartPlanet.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew Nusca is editor of SmartPlanet and an associate editor for ZDNet. Previously, he worked at Money, Men's Vogue and Popular Mechanics magazines. He holds degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and New York University. He based in New York but resides in Philadelphia.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca
Andrew Nusca does not hold any investments in the companies he covers.
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Aren't environmentalists upset about this?
After all, power plants of all forms (coal, gas & nuclear) are currently under assault everywhere because they artificially warm local bodies of water in this way, threatening local species and adding to "global warming".
Posted by JohnMcGrew@...
22nd Dec 2011
+1 Vote
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Powered by fjord
"Data-centers use massive amounts of energy. Cooling them requires even more of it. So why not use natural resources to ease the pain?"

Help me out here if you would, please. If it is OK to use "natural resources" to cool a Data-center, then why wouldn't the use of "Natural Resources" like coal, oil and gas be OK to make the electricity needed to power the Data-centers? Both contribute to the heating of the earth, right?

This mind-boggling, off-center, simplistic mentality about the good vs. evil of alleged "man-made" climate change and other environmental issues never ceases to amaze me.

If this issue consumes you, please stop breathing ... every time you exhale you are contributing to the greenhouse gasses responsible for global warming.

Demand that President Obama will sign any legislation approving the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project. If you are so worried about the earth and future generations then do something that will assure that our kids and grandkids won't be burdened with the staggering debt (and the myriad of negative environmental, health and social problems resulting from that debt) that this "block everything positive" administration has bestowed upon us. Please vote for anyone but Obama in the next Presidential election.
Posted by RCBeltz
22nd Dec 2011
0 Votes
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You guys are both retarded
The water will still be in the fjord after it's used for cooling and still even drinkable but caol and oil will be transformed into a substance that harms life.

I'm from Canada and the Oil we provide the U.S. with and that the proposed XL pipeline will carry makes up only 4% of our GNP and employed 1.8% of our work force according to Statistics Canada. If that industry stopped it would barely be felt.
Posted by shaunehunter
31st Dec 2011
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