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Opera Plans Containerized Data Center In Iceland

Posted by timothy on from the not-enough-virgins-to-satisfy-the-gods dept.

1sockchuck writes "Iceland's supply of renewable power has gained a high-profile international data center customer. Web browser developer Opera Software was announced today as the first customer of the Thor Data Center, which will house Opera's servers in data center containers that can use fresh air cooling, rather than chillers (a strategy also used by Google). The Thor Data Center is located in Hafnarfjorour, to the west of Iceland's ash-spewing volcano. Iceland's data center operators insist their location represents no operational risk from volcanic activity."

6 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds to be nice location by XnR'rn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good for them. Renewable energy. Lower cooling bills.

    I wonder how large the datacenter needs to be to have a significant ecological impact?

    1. Re:Sounds to be nice location by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As I wrote, there is such a thing as a law of conservation of energy. If you heat the water with the waste thermal energy from circuits powered by the potential energy of the same water, how does that differ from letting the water simply fall down from mountains and heat up in the process, in terms of the temperature rise?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Sbelling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The location isn't spelled "Hafnarfjorour", it's "Hafnarfjörður".

    Sheesh! How can you get a simple thing so wrong?

  3. Why not? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just make sure you have good dust filters.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:Svavar Kjarrval by Kynde · · Score: 3, Funny

    The town's correct spelling is Hafnarfjörður
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnarfj%C3%B6r%C3%B0ur

    Hafnarfjörður and Hafnarfj%C3%B6r%C3%B0ur look pretty much the same to me.

    --
    1 Earth is warming, 2 It's us, 3 it's royally bad, 4 we need to take action NOW
  5. Re:ash? by doctormetal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then they just call it ash cloud computing.