Nordics: What's facilitating Nordic data center growth?

The Nordic data center industry is growing fast. As Europe's data center hubs are getting more and more crowded, and discussions about moratoriums spreading, many are looking to Nordic countries for cheaper, greener facilities. This trend follows recent legislative changes to tax laws in the region, specifically Sweden and Norway. Sweden, for example, introduced a 97% tax cut on electricity costs for data centers four years ago, and Norway adopted similar cuts.

As a result, as reported by Computer Weekly, international private equity groups are now targeting Nordic countries with acquisitions to take advantage of this climate. IPI Partners and Azrieli being two of the big players moving in.

Back in July, IPI announced the acquisition of Digiplex taking over 21,000 sqm of built infrastructure and 400,000 sqm of expandable land. Green Mountain was taken over by Azriel for $850 million in July, too.

Of course, another attractive element of the Nordics is that the cooler temperatures can help to achieve lower PUEs naturally. The Nordics produce data centers with PUE of between 1.1 to 1.2, much lower than average.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Byrne Murphy, chairman of DigiPlex, commented on how the company currently utilizes cooler temperatures: "We take maximum advantage of the climate with our Air-to-Air cooling solution, which deploys huge fans that pull in cool air from outside and distribute it to the many thousands of heat-generating servers housed in each facility. The design works in concert with nature to save energy, reduce costs and decrease the environmental footprint."

Going forward, the Nordic countries are certainly the ones to watch.