Record-sized data centre planned inside Arctic Circle

Plans to build the world's "largest" data centre are being made public.

The facility is set to be created at the Norwegian town of Ballangen, which is located inside the Arctic Circle.

The firm behind the project, Kolos, says the chilled air and abundant hydropower available locally would help it keep its energy costs down.

The area, however, suffers the country's highest rate of sick leave from work, which may be related to its past as a mining community.

The US-Norwegian company says it has already raised "several million dollars" for the project from Norwegian private investors.

However, it is still working with a US investment bank to secure the remaining necessary funds.

It is basing its record-setting claims on the amount of power it intends to draw on to run its computer servers.

Initially, Kolos' base would draw on about 70 megawatts of power.

However, within a decade, the firm intends to have added enough computer server modules to drawn on more than 1,000 MW.

Amazon's data processing division is already thought to draw on about 1,000 MW of power in Ashburn, Virginia, however its servers are spread across the area rather than being clustered together into a single centre.

 

Photo by: KOLOS Caption: The facility would be surrounded by water on three sides, which could aid security