DATA CENTRES atNorth ’ s FIN01 data centre in Helsinki
IMAGE : ATNORTH
“ As a company , we have a pretty good and clear location criteria already in our mission statement , which is the Nordics . This is where we believe the data centres of the future will reside .”
Customer attitudes to sustainable locations Kr says that when he first entered the industry , putting power production into the context of CO2 output was far from people ’ s minds . “ People did not really relate to how something you do on the internet would result in carbon output ,” he reminisces . “ I think the general consensus is that this is understood today . We understand that the power production can result in carbon footprint .”
He says one of the hot topics over the last 12 to 18 months is the status of European power markets – how we produce energy that we turn off – gas – and how that impacts power prices to consumers despite many markets claiming to be almost powered solely by renewable energy .
“ I think we are closer and are more knowledgeable about how we power data today , how we power data centres and our life online – which is consuming an increasingly big portion of our existence .” atNorth ’ s Stockholm data centre sees around 85 %
of the power it consumes recycled
He also feels that recently steps have been taken to enable data centres to participate in a circular economy . atNorth ’ s Stockholm data centre , for example , sees around 85 % of the power it consumes recycled . Compute is transformed into another form of energy – heat – and mitigated back to the central heating system .
“ This , in my mind , is a major step and is a prime focus for our company , is to participate in the circular economy . In our mind this is part of respectful use of resources . And in particular , this is important when you deal with workloads that are extremely power hungry .”
And although Kr gives a comprehensive overview of the data centre outlook in the Nordic region , he notes that the landscape is constantly changing .
“ I would have answered [ these questions ] differently not more than 12 months ago because things have been evolving very fast in Nordics . I believe that we are in the early stages of the Nordics becoming the European hub of data centre operations . The Nordics will
become one of the leading data centre markets worldwide .
“ I believed that as well 10 years ago . But I feel it ’ s now becoming tangible .”
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