Cold Weather is Great for Servers so Facebook is Going to Sweden

Facebook announced that it is building a 900,000 square feet server farm in Lulea, Sweden, a small city with 45,000 in population. The city is also 600 miles north of Stockholm and just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

The appeal of the place is the average temperature of 27.5 degrees. Server farms usually get very hot and uses a lot of electricity. Cold weather should cool off the machines.

Aside from the weather, the company also said that the large, fast-flowing river nearby the location with its large hydroelectric dam should be able to provide for the electricity needed. The company would be needing 120 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the power requirement of about 16,000 homes.

Facebook said in a statement:

“The Lulea data center will draw its power almost exclusively from hydroelectric sources. The result is a data center that is significantly more efficient than the industry standard, saving energy and reducing its environmental footprint.”

If you’re a Facebook employee, would you relocate to the Arctic Circle?