Facebook to build server farm near Arctic Circle, report says
Social-network giant expected to announce its first non-U.S. server farm will be located in Sweden, 60 miles from the Arctic Circle.
Expect Facebook's new server farm to be pretty cool.
The social-networking giant is expected to announce tomorrow that it will build its first non-U.S. server farm in Lulea, a town in northern Sweden about 60 miles from the Arctic Circle, according to a report in the Telegraph.
The new farm will comprise three server halls covering an area about the size of 11 football fields and will take advantage of the region's cool temperatures to keep its equipment cold. The Lulea River, which is said to produce twice as much hydro-electric power as the Hoover Dam, is expected to provide much of the center's power.
Construction of the server farm is expected to be completed in 2012, according to The Local, a Swedish newspaper.
Facebook representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
Locating server farms in cold regions has attracted tech companies' attention before. Microsoft was considering locating one of its server farms in Siberia in 2007, but nothing ever came of it. Google built a server farm in 2009 on the site of a former paper mill in Hamina, Finland.