Take a byte out of agriculture
Land continues to hold value for people in the business of farming crops and housing data for cloud computing. Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and Ask.com already have data centers, not in urban sprawls but in rural areas in the Northwest, and now Facebook wants to claim its territory too.
Facebook, Inc. plans to build a 145,000 square foot data farm in Prineville, Oregon, a town that has had its share of economic heartache. High unemployment and the loss of five sawmills have burdened the town of about 10,000. Facebook’s expenditure of $175 million over the next three years will create much needed jobs and cash flow for residents.
So why Prineville? City Manager Steve Forrester says it’s a combination of “low cost land…and high voltage power lines nearby.” And of course, the weather. “The critical thing was our climate: low humidity and cool nights.”
Check out more details on the story, “Where Clouds Displace Forests: Oregon Town Is Latest in Northwest to Leverage Cheap Electric Power to Lure Data Farm,” in The Wall Street Journal.
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