Nordic IT provider Advania has signed a deal for 30MW of power from Icelandic utility Landsvirkjun, to expand a campus which contains the Thor modular data center, and the Mjölnir facility designed for bitcoin miners.

Advania Data Centers plans to triple the size of its operations in Iceland in the near future, with a big expansion in high performance computing and blockchain sectors (including cryptocurrency). The data center business is only a part of Advania, a Nordic services company operating in Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which runs much of Iceland’s public sector IT. 

Asgard for ever

Advania’s facilities benefit from Iceland’s cheap renewable power and cold climate, adding up to lower cost, a lower PUE and a smaller carbon footprint. The Thor data center is a conventional modular facility which launched around 2010, based on shipping containers within a building, equipped with adiabatic air cooling, UPS and diesel generators.

On the same campus, Mjölnir offers a lower-cost “Tier 1” option designed for cryptocurrency miners, which uses outside air cooling and supports up to 20kW per rack, but has no UPS or diesel backup. ”Iceland has one of the most stable power grids in the world so need for this backup power is very little,” says Advania’s site. “If needed we can also add those elements to certain parts of the facility.”

The additional energy will be delivered from Landsvirkjun’s existing power station network, which includes 14 hydropower stations, three geothermal stations and two wind turbines. 

“We have invested heavily in expertise and technical capabilities in recent years to better serve customers with high density hosting needs and this has strengthened the company’s position in a highly competitive environment,” said Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO of Advania Data Centers. ”Our customers see the benefits of the energy savings that come with the natural air cooling of computer equipment in the data center.”