Facebook heads to the Arctic to keep its servers cool

Inside the Facebook data centre at Luleå, Sweden. (FACEBOOK IMAGE)

The social media behemoth, Facebook, has found a new way to keep one of its massive server farms from overheating: install it in an Arctic location.

Facebook announced June 12 that its newest data centre, located in Luleå, Sweden, now handles live traffic from around the world.

Luleå, a city with a population of about 75,000, lies just below the Arctic Circle at about the same latitude as Pangnirtung.

The firm’s data centre in Luleå is powered by a local hydroelectric plant, which Facebook brags is “100 per cent renewable.”

The firm also takes advantage of the region’s cold climate to keep their equipment from burning out.

“In addition to harnessing the power of water, we are using the chilly Nordic air to cool the thousands of servers that store your photos, videos, comments, and Likes. Any excess heat that is produced is used to keep our office warm.” the company said.

With 1.1 billion users worldwide, Facebook’s servers hold and process billions of photos, comments, videos and other forms of digitized media.

And hundreds of millions of new pieces of data are added to Facebook every day.

Facebook plans to build three 300,000 square-foot buildings at Luleå to host its server farms.