Facebook Will Double Size of Oregon Data Center

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A look at the progress of construction on the new Facebook data center in Prineville, Oregon.

Facebook said today that it will double the size of its first company-built data center in Prineville, Oregon, which is currently under construction. The expansion will add another 160,000 square foot shell to the 147,000 square foot facility now being built, for a total of 307,000 square feet of space.

Facebook's decision to commit to an expansion before it has even completed the first phase of the facility reflects the accelerated pace of pace of infrastructure growth for the social network, which recently reached 500 million active users.

"We are making excellent progress on the first phase of our Prineville Data Center and we are hoping to finish construction of that phase in the first quarter of 2011," said Tom Furlong, Director of Site Operations for Facebook. "To meet the needs of our growing business, we have decided to go ahead with the second phase of the project, which was an option we put in place when we broke ground earlier this year. The second phase should be finished by early 2012."

The expansion is good news for the Prineville community, as the expansion will extend construction activity at the Facebook site, which has employed between 50 to 200 workers on site on a daily basis. The Prineville Data Center will create 35 permanent jobs.

"We couldn't be happier with our choice of location. The Prineville and Central Oregon communities have been excellent partners," said Ken Patchett, Facebook's Data Center Manager.

When it announced the Prineville project in January, Facebook left open the possibility that it will build additional space. "Additional construction phases may be possible in the future, depending on business needs," the company said.

Facebook says the 147,000 square foot Prineville data center will be designed to LEED Gold standards and is expected to have a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.15. The expansion was announced on the Facebook page for the Prineville Data Center.

Here’s a look at some of our past coverage of the growth of Facebook’s infrastructure: