INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
Facebook confirms Sweden
as a world-class destination
for data centres
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THE DATA CENTRE
INDUSTRY IN
SWEDEN IS
CURRENTLY
GROWING AT AN
ESTIMATED 14%
PER YEAR.
F
acebook has announced an expansion
of its Luleå site to almost double its
current size which will make the Luleå
site one of the largest data centres in the
world. Sweden has perfect conditions and
is today one of the world’s most attractive
locations for data centres.
Facebook first decided to establish a data
centre in Sweden in 2011, where it has
invested US$1.2 billion to date. When the new
data centre goes operational in 2021, the
Luleå campus will be more than 100,000m 2
(one million sq ft). This will make it one of the
largest data centres in the world.
“Facebook’s decision to expand their Luleå
site confirms that Sweden has the best
possible conditions to operate large-scale
data centres. This demonstrates that we
deliver on high expectations from global
www.intelligentcio.com
investors. It has been an amazing journey to
work with Facebook and Luleå to help create
one of the largest and most energy-efficient
data centres in the world,” said Tomas
Sokolnicki, Head of Data Centers by Sweden
at Business Sweden.
Sweden has a long industrial tradition
where the need for power has been crucial
to operate its mission-critical industries.
Sweden’s secure and reliable infrastructure
and production have developed over a long
time, making Sweden fit for the digital era in
a way that few other countries can match.
Other hyperscalers are also on their way.
Amazon Web Services are about to finalise
the construction of three data centres in the
Stockholm region and work is ongoing on
the 109 ha land plot acquired by Google to
prepare for a potential data centre project.
Sweden’s unique combination of low power
costs, together with a strong renewable
energy production, a near-zero carbon
footprint and robust fibre connectivity
makes it one of Europe’s most ideal
locations for data centres to invest and
expand their operations.
“Data centre investors are attracted to
Sweden’s robust power grid, our fibre network
and renewable energy. After the cost of
electricity for data centres was dramatically
lowered last year, interest from all kinds of
data centre operators, from high-performance
computing, to colocation, has reached an all-
time high,” said Tomas Sokolnicki.
The data centre industry in Sweden is
currently growing at an estimated 14%
per year and is expected to employ 30,000
people in 2025. n
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