Emailing "Your Next Data Center Should be in a Cold Place"
Data centers are a $110 billion industry, so it's no surprise that countries would try to seek new data center investment. Unlike car or airplane factories, which are typically built closest to their biggest markets, data centers can be built anywhere as long as there's good bandwidth coming in and out. So now, some cold countries are trying to attract data center investment by capitalizing on the fact that they are...
cold.
Companies in Scotland have developed plans to utilize energy from the sea, cold climate, and wind power to run and cool data centers. Iceland is even more ambitious, with one company launching a data center than can power 15,000-20,000 servers using only five megawatts of power, a fraction of other comparable projects.
Japan has no such plans, given that it's a Pacific nation with warm summers. Japan is, however,
pledging to be on the forefront of countries with commitments to reduce carbon emissions if (and it's a big if) other countries play along as well. Yukio Hatoyama, the new prime minister of Japan, delivered a speech over the weekend promising to reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels. Compare this to the US current pledge of 6% if the ACES bill passes, and you'll get an idea of what a big deal this is. It's a campaign promise that Hatoyama made, but the ability to actually deliver on this promise has many wondering if it's all politics or if there's some real action here. My guess is that Japan is very much looking to see how the climate bill fares in the U.S. If ACES passes Japan will be happy to play along or even exceed U.S. reductions. If ACES fails, then Hatoyama's pledges will quietly disappear along with it.