'Biggest' data center to be built in Arctic Circle

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A data center that could potentially be the largest in the world is set to be constructed in the Norwegian town of Ballangen, inside the Arctic Circle.

Kolos, the company behind the project, claims that the cool environment and abundant hydropower will keep energy costs low.

Kolos claims that the cool environment and abundant hydropower inside the Arctic Circle will keep energy costs low. /AFP Photo

"It's quite literally the lowest power cost in Europe, and 100 percent of the power is renewable on one of the most stable grids in the world," the US-Norwegian company's co-chief executive Mark Robinson told BBC.

Since the area is naturally cold and has suitable humidity, the servers can remain cool without having to artificially chill them, said Robinson.

The region for the data center is bigger than the current record-holder, a facility in China.

Illustrated aerial view of Range International Information Hub. /Photo via rangeidc.com

Located in Langfang, the Chinese data center of the Range Group occupies over 58.5 hectares, nearly the size of 110 football pitches, according to CIO.in. Completed in 2016, design services, business applications, and solutions of the data center are provided by IBM.

The Kolos-facility is slightly smaller than the final plan for a center in Nevada, which is still in development, said BBC.

The Ballangen data center would draw on about 70 megawatts of power, with ambitions of adding enough computer server modules to draw on more than 1,000 megawatts within a decade, BBC reported.

Switch's data center sector, Las Vegas, Nevada. /Photo via Switch

According to CIO.in's rank last November, the largest data center until the completion of the Langfang facility was owned by Las Vegas-based tech company Switch, and covers an area of 32.5 hectares in Nevada.

The third place belongs to the “Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Centre for the US Intelligence Community” in Utah, which spans just under 14 hectares.

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