Norway improves data centre sustainability

The Norwegian government has unveiled its national data centre strategy, with a six-point plan to improve sustainability, growth, and jobs.

The country’s strategy includes plans to support foreign investment in Norwegian data centres, by taking part in initiatives like ‘Invest in Norway’ and publishing English language guides for foreign investors. It also seeks to build a cooperative relationship between the data centre industry and educational institutions, to help prepare the workforce for future needs.

According to the government, the Norwegian data centre industry currently provides 2,000 jobs in the workforce; and that number is expected to grow to over 11,000 by 2025.

Finally, the new strategy outlines sustainability in the data centre, with requirements for data centre owner/operators to create heat maps and investigate the use of surplus heat and work with a governmental committee to assess data centre impact on public power grids.

The new strategy, called “Norwegian data centres – sustainable digital power centres” was created to demonstrate the government’s “commitment to digitalisation and the data-driven economy.”

Norwegian minister of regional development and digitalisation Linda Hofstad Helleland emphasized the importance of the data centre to the ongoing infrastructure development of the country. “Data centres are important building blocks of our digital infrastructure,” she said. “Without the data centre industry, important areas of society within the health, energy and transport sectors would stop functioning.”

Moreover, she said, the pandemic escalated demand for technology services throughout the region. “During the pandemic, the need for computing power has been enormous. Norway has an important role to play in further developing the industry.”

Norway has a head start on sustainability, with the highest share of renewably sourced energy in Europe – and the lowest emissions from utilities. With the new strategy, the country intends to increase sustainable practices throughout the data centre industry.

“The cooperation between the data centre industry and the Norwegian government is good, and will be developed further,” said Petter Tømmeraas, chairman of the board of the Norwegian Data Centre Industry. “We see great potential for further growth and want to work together to realise the Government’s goal of a sustainable Norwegian data centre industry. We invite Norwegian and foreign players throughout the data centre value chain to work with us.”