Category: Geothermal

Iceland’s Thor Data Center has been acquired by Skyrr, one of Iceland’s largest IT service providers, he companies said today. Thor provides modular data center services to customers including Opera Software. Skyrr is based in Iceland but also has a solid position in the Nordic markets through its subsidiaries abroad in Norway and Sweden. Skýrr offers integrated services in software, consulting, hardware, IT operations and hosting. “We have been looking into developing a data centre here in Iceland for a while now as there are so many great opportunities in this field, especially in foreign markets,” said Gestur G. Gestsson, the CEO of Skýrr. “We expect that Thor Data Center will help bring in foreign currency and contribute to the overall development of the country’s economy.

Solar power has been only capable of producing a small part of data centre energy needs, but this may change, says Peter Judge Solar power has always seemed a good long term bet for renewable energy. After all, pretty much every single Joule of energy we use on the planet comes from the sun originally The sun’s energy is caught by plants, which make fuels, either through the long process of fossilisation producing oil and gas, or by directly producing wood, or man-made ethanol to burn. Animals’ energy comes from plants, and the sun drives the water cycle which produces hydro-electric energy. Nuclear power uses energy stored from older suns where the heavier elements are made. Geothermal energy does include energy originating on earth – it is the heat of the earth’s core, but it is maintained at that temperature by radioactive decay inside the earth.

US-based startup Emerald Networks has joined a race to build the first new transatlantic telecommunication cable since 2003, linking Ireland and Iceland to North America. It hopes to lay the USD 300m transatlantic telecoms cable by 2013. The initiative could bring hundreds to jobs to the country with Co Mayo, where the cable will make landfall, receiving a particular boost. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has unveiled the project, heralding it as a big step in the government's ambition to make Ireland a global hub for cloud computing. "This will give great connectivity around the whole country, which is vitally important for attracting high tech investment in the future," government spokesman Tom McLoughlin said. Demand for remote data centres is increasing, boosted by the rising trend of so-called cloud computing, where information is stored and processed at massive remote data centres.

Press Release 2 December 2011 Emerald Networks, Inc. ("Emerald Networks" or the "Group") US$300 million submarine cable system to transform transatlantic communications New York to London low latency route will be the first to offer 100 Gbps transatlantic ...

DUBLIN, UK: Ireland and Iceland are seeking to fuel their hard-hit economies and exploit their position on the western edge of Europe with new data centers to be connected via a new, $300 million transatlantic telecoms cable by 2013. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny unveiled the project -- which Ireland hopes will help in its ambition in becoming a global hub for cloud computing -- on Thursday at Dublin Castle. Also Read: Cloud computing: Who has what in their cloud box "This will give great connectivity around the whole country, which is vitally important for attracting high tech investment in the future," Irish government spokesman Tom McLoughlin said. Demand for remote data centers is increasing, boosted by the rising trend of so-called cloud computing, where information is stored and processed at massive remote data centers. Ireland's temperate climate suits the centers, which require huge amounts of power to run and to ...

But this latter issue is more difficult to resolve. Lack of subsea cables are more easily addressable, and Emerald Networks, a private company with two Icelandic founders, is now planning to lay 5,200kms of cable along a northerly route to ...

Ireland and Iceland are seeking to fuel their hard-hit economies and exploit their position on the western edge of Europe with new data centres to be connected via a new, USD300 million transatlantic telecoms cable by 2013.

I've tackled this subject in a previous blog but chairing the recent Green Data Center conference in London, I had the chance to hear in detail about two very different approaches to modularized design. The first example was Verne Global's new ...

Verne Global’s new data center in Iceland will deploy customer servers in a factory-built modular server hall designed and built by Colt in its UK factory and shipped to Verne’s site in a former NATO command center. In this video, executives from Verne discuss their location and why they chose...

While the failure of government-backed solar start-up Solyndra generated a lot of news headlines, it has also encouraged some discussion about the role of government in helping get new industries off the ground. It may also have highlighted the fact that venture capital companies and their investors may be starting to fall out of love with alternative energy, an industry that has proven it needs a long runway for take-off. Venture capitalists and investors, not always the most patient of people, seem to be increasingly wary about investing in technologies that are still in their infancy, or at least in their youth. But as the news last week brought us the knowledge that the seven billionth human being entered the world somewhere in India, the need to move forward with alternative energy remains urgent. And move forward it will: though it may not find itself using government cash or traditional ...

Iceland is working to tip the scales toward renewable energy in a world where most computing needs are powered by coal. More News From ClimateWire DOE Project Probes for a Major CO2 Repository for Northeast Power Plants Republicans Probe Whether DOE's Effort to Save Solyndra Violated 2005 Energy Act Nations Heading to Durban Climate Talks Remain Deeply Divided British Engineer Says Climate, Resource Problems Make Future Economic Growth Much Harder One Man's Struggle to Bridge the Landlord-Tenant Energy Divide A blog about energy and the environment. Go to Blog » The familiar fuss is that fossil fuels make the most business sense for computing. Data centers -- the big warehouses full of servers that process all our Googling, emailing, online banking and so forth -- are situated in areas that have easy access to cheap energy. Coal and other traditional energy sources keep them running. But as data centers proliferate to ...

Iceland is working to tip the scales toward renewable energy in a world where most computing needs are powered by coal. The familiar fuss is that fossil fuels make the most business sense for computing. Data centers -- the big warehouses full of servers that process all our Googling, emailing, online banking and so forth -- are situated in areas that have easy access to cheap energy. [More]

EarthTechlingA Zero Emissions Data Center For IcelandEarthTechlingThe facility was designed to take advantage of Iceland's chilly climate with free cooling 365 days a year. More information on the project will be available on the Colt/Verne Global Data Center website. Colt_Verne Global Data Center.and more »

Building a data center that minimizes use of fossil fuels is one of the gargantuan tasks facing the IT industry, yet at least one company has a simple solution: move to Iceland. With cooling freely provided by nature and access to both geothermal and hydroelectric energy, the UK-based co-location vendor Verne Global says it is on the verge of opening a “100% carbon neutral” data center before ...

IIceland has opened a new 100 percent carbon neutral data centre site that will support UK and US companies wanting to save money and widen their green IT strategies. UK firm Verne Global is the first company to open a data centre at the 18-hectare Keflavik site which was previously used by the military, including NATO operations. Also in this channel News In Depth How-Tos Blogs Slideshows Related Articles AMD stock inside trader in fight over cash gains How much profit he made illegitimately is disputed >> Apple fans pay tribute to Steve Jobs in London Flowers, pictures and apples left at Covent Garden store >> Huawei gunning for Cisco in the enterprise The Chinese and intellectual property issues are well in the past as Huawei enters the US and global enterprise market >> Wikileaks Wikileaks - fearless whistleblowers or irresponsible nuisances? Keep up to date with the latest developments. Read more The data ...