Facebook's New Datacenter

Luleå, Sweden
Luleå, Sweden

Unfriend Coal Campaign Breathes a Sigh of Happiness

Very near the Arctic Circle, in Luleå, Sweden, Facebook is working on its first datacenter outside the United States. Free cooling from this frigid environment and being near renewable hydropower in the area, this more progressive location is is showing the datacenter will be greener than normal from day one.

Sweden
Sweden

The Unfriend Coal campaign can breathe a sigh of happiness and smile on [what will hopefully be] a change in Facebook’s policies towards sustainable power. 700,000 online activists have campaigned around the world for a greener Facebook for nearly 2 years. It seems it is finally bearing considerable fruit.

In regards to the datacenter, Facebook spokesperson Michael Kirkland was quoted discussing the Luleå location: “[it] will be the first Facebook datacentre powered primarily by renewable power… it’s a really important consideration for us.” Yes, this is exactly what campaigners have been pushing for.

The campaign is not yet complete, though – so please ‘like’ the news on Facebook and let the company know at the Facebook: Unfriend Coal page. Invite other friends to join in and support consciousness in communications in this age of increased online activity.

This news from Facebook is encouraging, as it moves towards abundant possibilities to keep up with the ongoing wish for renewable power with this new data center.

 

Sunset Luleå, Sweden

“The Cloud” and Energy Consumption

“The cloud” is a description of the online data which is run by massive data centers. This “cloud” is increasing the needs of electricity tremendously. Anna K. reports in Facebook’s New Datacentre: a renewable-powered friend?: “If this cloud was a country, it would be the fifth largest in the world in terms of electricity use.” With the size of this elusive cloud one must understand that it requires clean energy to support any idea of sustainability for Facebook and the planetary citizens that use it. Most of us, certainly do not understand this depth of energy consumption in terms of the enigmatic cloud [hopefully a bit clearer now] – the invisible place that all our emails, status updates, streaming videos, etc. pass through before they meet our eyes and FB accounts.

This new, renewably powered datacenter is a very refreshing change, and hopefully it’s a beginning to ongoing change globally.

I want to express a sense of gratitude to everyone who worked to educate, demand, and respect better choices in energy providers, and certainly congratulations to Facebook for this choice.

Photo Credits: Joakim.Westerlund (top photo); patrickt (other photos)

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top