Consider all the status updating, picture posting and wall writing you do daily on Facebook. Now multiply that by the social media site's estimated 800 million users and you can imagine Facebook's computer servers give off their fair share of heat.
That's why the Internet empire announced that they're building their new eco-friendly server farm in Lulea, Sweden, a place where the computers can chill ... literally.
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The city is within spitting distance of the Arctic Circle and averages 35 degrees Fahrenheit year round. The cold air will help sustain the air conditioning system in charge of cooling the server farm, which will span 175,000 square feet over three buildings. Even with the Arctic air helping to cut down on the energy bill, cooling a space equivalent to 11 football fields is not cheap. The server farm will cost $75 million a year to operate.
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Also appealing to Facebook are the benefits of the nearby Lulea River and its potential to offer cheap, hydroelectric power.
[Via Inhabitat]
Tags: Carbon Offsets, Communication, Computer Hardware, Computer Networking, Computer Software
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