Facebook opens its first datacenter outside the US, in Lulea, Sweden. The location is about 65 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The area has a suitable weather for a data center. Its cool, dry climate allows Facebook to use outside air for cooling instead of using energey hogging Air Conditioning Systems.
The average temperature in Lulea stays at around 35 degrees Fahrenheit (anywhere between 41 degrees Fahrenheit to 27 degrees Fahrenheit) and the temperature rarely goes above 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
The data center uses the nearby river, Lule River, to produce hydro-electric power (about 13 million MW hours); this is a lot of energy - it is equals to about 10% of Sweden’s total demand for electric energy.
Facebook is using Open Compute Project Design (OCP) technology for the data center. Open Compute Project is a Facebook project launched in February 2012 for sharing design concepts for data centers, servers and related technologies.
