A 4000 acres site at Gromstul, about 10 km Northeast of Skien city centre, is under development to facilitate large-scale data centers – so-called "Hyperscale Datacenters”. A business development company is established by the landowner, Skien municipality and Telemark County Council to facilitate all activities necessary. Statkraft has an agreement with the landowner that gives the right to regulate the area towards potential stakeholders.
Background
The global data center industry is the fastest growing industry in the world, and giant companies are constantly looking for new locations. Norway has so far been beaten at the finish line by its Nordic neighbours in the battle to land the major contracts. The initiative in Skien wants to do something about that. Datacenter owners look for a number of elements when deciding potential new sites:
- There must be access to the large amount of energy. A hyperscale datacenter consumes massive amounts of energy, and the capacity of delivered energy must be on a very high level.
- The delivered energy should be green. In Norway we have virtually exclusively renewable energy. Our power surplus only can alone can operate up to 20 hyperscale datacenters.
- It must be available dark fiber for digital traffic to the large nodes. Norway is sometimes challenged by arguments that we do not have a national digital backbone network, but it is important to clarify that the site in Skien has access to a sufficient number of pairs of dark fiber to meet stakeholders ' requirements for "Connectivity».
- The site must be of a size and it must be flat. Hyperscale data centers are very large. It is often of interest to locate several data centers on the same location.
- The major stakeholders dislike risks and establishments in Nordic countries with their political and economic stability, is great competitive advantages over other nations.
- Furthermore, stakeholders search for locations with favorable environmental factors. The Nordic countries are little influenced by extreme weather, earthquakes and similar challenges. We also have a natural cold climate that is both environmentally and economically beneficial as large data centers located in warm climate use large sums of money to cool their machine park.
- The data industry is generally forward looking and there are often requirements for proximity to university and/or college.
It is estimated that within a few years the need to establish at least 60 hyperscale data centers in Europe.
Statkraft has initiated an initiative to establish the data center industry in Norway in general, and has, after a longer process, selected Skien/Gromstul as one of its two primary projects.
What can Grenland offer?
The Gromstul site is large – approximately 4000 acres. Today this area is regulated to forestry without agriculture or other settlements. It is generally a very flat area where large surfaces only have a few feet of height difference.
Rød substation is located only 1 kilometer away Gromstul. This substation is among Norway's strongest both in terms of capacity and redundancy. In fact, Rød is among the most competitive energy points in northern Europe – especially if one considers energy deliveries based on renewable resources. The substation is heavily linked to both the national and the regional energy grid. In addition, the substation has an extremely redundant basic infrastructure. Data center at Gromstul may very well consider this source of energy deliveries as "redundant enough" to avoid having to invest and operate diesel generators, which usually ensure the necessary back-up for these large datacenters. This will give data centers very large investment and operational savings financially and major environmental gains.
The Grenland area in general and Skien municipality in particular has been very accommodating with a great desire to stretch far to meet the demands, assumptions and expectations in order to develop and realize the potential for new power-intensive industry at Gromstul.
Statkraft has entered into an agreement with the property owner to regulate the area of Gromstul for future data center industry.
A regional business development company – Site Telemark - owned by the landowner, Skien municipal and Telemark County has been established. Site Telemark facilitates all necessary activities in order to successfully establish a hyperscale data center at Gromstul in Skien.
