Iceland: Cheap Power, But Some Risk

Google's announcements of its data center projects in North Carolina and South Carolina have prompted speculation about where we might next see a Google dataplex. Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher suggests that Google might consider Iceland as a destination:

The folks at Invest in Iceland have already considered this, and have a page on their web site touting Iceland as an affordable destination for data center development, complete with a PDF brochure summarizing a cost study from KPMG. Iceland is located on a major submarine cable route and has a digital phone system.

So why isn't Iceland already overrun with data centers? Let's not forget the source of all that geothermal energy: Iceland sits atop an active volcanic rift. Cheap power, great connectivity and volcanic eruptions. Some companies operate data centers in Iceland, such as the Reykjav"k-based online game EVE Online. But I'm not sure Google's ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a server farm atop a volcano.