Facebook has announced that it’s building a fifth data center—adding to other four in Oregon, Iowa, North Carolina, and Sweden. The latest addition will be also be entirely run on renewable energy.


On the new data center’s Faceboook page—of course it has a Facebook page—Facebook’s Director of Data Center Operations Ken Patchett explains that it will be “one of the most advanced, efficient, and sustainable data centers in the world.” The center will be cooled by outdoor air instead of air conditioning (apparently that can work, even in Texas) and be powered by a 200MW wind energy plant just 90 miles down the road. That plant will consume 17,000 acres of land in Clay County, and for the meantime will pump spare energy into the local grid as it produces more than Facbeook actually needs.

[Facebook via TechCrunch]

