Crusoe Takes 40MW Second Phase At Polar's Hydro-Powered Norway Campus

Crusoe will take a second, larger building at Polar Data Centers' Tørdal campus in Norway. Polar announced the expansion on Oct. 21 (announcement). The new building, DRA02, will add 40MW of liquid-cooled critical IT capacity on hydroelectric power and is due online in late 2027. Crusoe plans to deploy Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 systems there for Crusoe Cloud in Europe.

Polar is the landlord and Crusoe is the tenant. Polar develops and operates the buildings. Crusoe contracts for the capacity, then installs and runs its own GPU systems inside them. DCD reported the first deal as a lease when the companies announced it in June 2025.

That first deal covered DRA01, a 12MW building that is now live on 100% hydroelectric power and serves Crusoe Cloud. In 2025, Crusoe said the site could expand to 52MW (Crusoe). DRA02's 40MW brings the campus to that figure. DRA01 won Most Successfully Delivered Data Centre at the Data Centre World Awards 2026.

Both buildings sit in the Varpet Industrial Area in Drangedal, Telemark, southwest of Oslo. Polar markets the campus on renewable power, free cooling and high-density cooling options (Polar DC). Baxtel records Polar DC: DRA02 as under construction, with 40MW targeted for the fourth quarter of 2027.Official hero photograph accompanying Crusoe and Polar's announcement of the Tørdal AI campus expansion in Norway.

"The expansion into DRA02 demonstrates the strength of the collaboration and the confidence that comes from successful delivery," said Andy Hayes, chief executive of Polar. Cully Cavness, Crusoe's co-founder, president and chief strategy officer, pointed to the power source. "What makes Tørdal stand out is that it runs on 100% renewable hydroelectric power," he said. "Polar has been a solid partner to help us scale our presence in Europe."

Crusoe's US build is far larger. Its first campus in Abilene, Texas, is 1.2GW and runs on grid power, with gas turbines held for backup. A second Abilene campus, 900MW for Microsoft, will run on on-site gas turbines. In September, Crusoe cancelled a $1.25 billion order for Boom Supersonic turbines, but it still buys turbines from GE Vernova and Bergen Engines.

Norway's market is small by comparison. Baxtel tracks 113 data centers in Norway, run by 47 providers. Eight are in Telemark, including two under construction. The largest site in the country is BitDeer's Tydal facility at 175 MW.

Polar's next Norwegian project is also in Telemark. HER01, at Herøya Industrial Park in Porsgrunn, targets about 40MW (DCD).

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Related on Baxtel

• Polar DC
• Crusoe
• Polar DC: DRA02
• Crusoe: Tordal
• Norway
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