Apple’s data center in Denmark may soon have a new neighbor: Google. Reuters has reported that the search giant has purchased a plot of land adjacent to the plot that Apple intends to use for a data center.
In July of this year, Apple said that it planned to spend $950 million to build a new data center on that plot of land. The company expects it to be operational by 2019. Assuming Google follows suit, it would make the area one of the world’s largest data centers.
Denmark’s energy minister, Lars Christian Lilleholt, said that the deal was likely motivated by the fact that Denmark offers some of the greenest and most affordable energy in Europe.
“It signals that Google has plans in Denmark, and I think it’s because we have some of Europe’s lowest power prices for companies, some of the greenest energy, and a high security of supply,” he told Reuters.
Lilleholt’s comments track with what an Apple spokesperson said in July regarding the importance of renewable energy.
“The planned facility in Aabenraa, like all of our data centers, will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one, thanks to new clean energy sources we’re adding,” Erik Stannow, Apple’s Nordic manager, said.
Tech companies, in general, have recently started embracing renewable energy as a means of combating climate change. Last year, Google reaffirmed its commitment to renewable energy. Plans such as these go a long way towards reducing the effects of climate change, while also generating some good PR for the companies involved.
Google currently has no plans for the plot of land it purchased, but the company said that it wanted to secure so that it could expand in the region. Additionally, the company owns another plot of land in Fredericia, Denmark.
Apple and Google aren’t the only tech companies seeking to take advantage of Denmark’s low energy prices. In January, Facebook announced that it planned to build a datacenter in Odense, Denmark. It will be the company’s third data center located outside of the U.S.
This expansion into Denmark is not surprising considering that the country is one of the most tech-friendly ones in the world. This is true both in terms of consumer adoption and its business environment.
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