The Norwegian Government has presented an updated data centre strategy entitled “Norwegian data centres – sustainable, digital power centres”. The strategy will launch a number of measures to contribute to sustainable growth and job creation in Norway, it is part of the Government’s commitment to digitalisation and the data-driven economy.
“Data centres are important building blocks of our digital infrastructure,” Linda Hofstad Helleland, Minister of regional development and digitalisation, said. “Without the data centre industry, important areas of society within the health, energy and transport sectors would stop functioning. During the pandemic, the need for computing power has been enormous. Norway has an important role to play in further developing this industry.”
The country’s data centre industry has grown significantly in recent years. The industry already contributes to approximately 2,000 jobs, which could grow to more than 11,000 jobs in 2025, according to a recent white paper.
“Norway makes an ideal location for green and efficient data centres,” Carl von Hessen, Head of Data Centre Investment at AQ Compute, said. “This is due to a cold climate, 98 per cent electricity supply from renewable sources, the most competitive electricity prices within Europe as well as proactive support from the Norwegian government for the data centre segment.”
In the new data centre strategy, there are measures to contribute to increased growth in the data centre industry while at the same time facilitating sustainable development. They aim to strengthen the promotion of Norway as a data centre nation, through channels such as Invest in Norway which works to facilitate investment in data-driven value creation and data centres in the country as well as facilitate sustainable development of the data centre industry in Norway by requiring data centres to investigate how the surplus heat (waste heat) can be utilised.
