Many of my recent blogs have explored the benefits that Iceland offers as a data center location for low-cost electricity and cooling in the growing green movement. As the movement strengthens and carbon-reducing legislation continues materializing around globe, Iceland could be the one who in turn sees a benefit from environmentally conscious IT industry projects.  Technology innovation and clean energy are now making a major impact on how and where companies conduct their business.  No longer thought of as a fad, this affection for eco-friendliness is catching the attention of numerous businesses and investors worldwide in an otherwise dreary economical landscape. 

With its popularity rising, going green may actually prove to be a defining boost in the advancement of the global economy.  Christine McEntee, CEO of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), points to consumer behavior as the major indicator to back up this idea in a recent article.  As she points out, a new AIA survey revealed that “consumers continue to purchase energy-efficient products and are greening their homes, showing just how mainstream incorporating green into one's everyday life has become.” As energy-efficiency becomes the standard among consumers, businesses are looking to pickup and promote green practices as well.  In the IT industry especially, companies want to improve perception of their environmental impact, thus green continues to become quite the hot commodity.   

Financiers are certainly taking note of how important green solutions are to the economy as investment firms have begun putting money into things like clean technology more rapidly than ever before.  Frost & Sullivan’s venture capital report released last week reflects a thriving clean technology market segment despite any recession. The report found that venture capital investment in clean technology companies in the third quarter of 2009 increased to $965 million, a 46% increase over the previous quarter.

These revelations and statistics certainly seem to indicate that there is some potential good news on the economic horizon, most notably in the green sectors.  As a country far advanced in clean technology and renewable energy resources, Iceland is poised to benefit greatly from this.  For certain IT industries, like data centers that have had a history of over-indulgences in power and carbon emissions, incorporating Iceland as part of their green strategy could make a lot of sense.   In fact, a recent report just ranked Iceland as the top country to locate a data center due to its low-energy cost and free cooling capabilities.  In addition to data centers, there are other interesting clean technology innovations taking place in Iceland right now as well, but you’ll have to stay tuned for my next post to learn more about those.