Iceland is touting itself as the ideal place to locate data centres. It is cool year-round, has abundant power in the form of geothermal energy and likes to think that it can become the first emission-free country in the world. The first data centre outside Reykjavik will be ready in a year to lease space to internet companies that want to relocate their power-hungry servers there.

The millions of servers in the world – Google alone is estimated to have a million – produce as much CO2 as the airline industry, and  between 30-40 percent of the energy is used to keep them cool. Iceland has been laying the necessary fibre optic cables to Europe and North America so that the information can flow freely and fast.

Iceland has suffered in recent months from the financial crisis: four of its biggest banks needed to be bailed out by the government, the value of the kroner collapsed and many people lost their jobs. BBC, Der Spiegel (Eng)

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