Facebook building massive center

New York -- Construction has just started on Facebook’s new data center, but the massive facility already has its own Facebook page.



The world’s largest social network announced that construction has started on its fifth data center, which will be powered by wind. The new center is located in Fort Worth, Texas, and joins Facebook’s four existing data hubs in Oregon, Iowa, North Carolina, and Sweden.



"Like its predecessors, we expect Fort Worth to be one of the most advanced, efficient, and sustainable data centers in the world," stated Tom Furlong, VP of infrastructure, Facebook. "Our continuing work on data center design is an important part of our overall infrastructure efficiency efforts, which have helped us save more than $2 billion in infrastructure costs over the last three years."



The new center will feature the latest in Facebook’s “Open Compute Project” hardware designs and will be cooled using outdoor air instead of energy-intensive air conditioners. It will be powered by 100% renewable energy via the 200 MW of new wind energy that Facebook, in conjunction with Citigroup Energy, Alterra Power Corporation, and Starwood Energy Group, is bringing to the Texas grid as part of the deal.



“We recognize that we all need to work together to ensure that our industry is more efficient and more sustainable over time,” Furlong said. “That’s why we openly share our designs for our data centers through the Open Compute Project, which now has more than 200 members and thousands of participants, all collaborating on the development of efficient and sustainable data center technologies.



The center will be built as a 250,000-sq.-ft. facility that will eventually triple in size to 750,000 sq. ft.



The general contractor on the new data center is DPR Construction Co.