Data centres

Not a cloud in sight

The best places to store your terabytes

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Connect The Dots

The big secret is that the Pacific Northwest is the Saudi Arabia of Clean Energy.

The Columbia River basin has over 20 hydroelectric Dams including the single biggest electrical production site in the States, the Grand Coulee Dam. The Grand Coulee was the world's largest electrical producer for over a half century, until it was displaced by the Chinese Three Gorges Dam in 2008. IT is the Saudi Arabia of Hydroelectricity.

The adjacent windy plains of Western Oregon now has the the world's largest windfarm at Shepherd's Flat. Over 300 state-of-the art windmills generate nearly a Gigawatt of production. It is the Saudi Arabia of Wind Power.

Oregon and Washington have immense wood forests that are under harvested. If biomass were ever developed, wood powered cogeneration could fuel sustainable renewable power for centuries. Every day photosynthesis generates thousands of tons of fuel and cleans the air of CO2. It is potentially the Saudi Arabia of Wood Power.

Eastern Oregon active volcanoes are active sites for Geothermal. Some cities have unlimited free heat and hot water from simple heat transfer tubes in the ground. It is one of the few active sites of pioneering geothermal power in the States.

Data needs dependable and reliable clean energy.

The world needs a stable, friendly, and reliable Saudi Arabia for energy.

And a safe stable place for Data.

Oregon is the New Data Mecca.

All servers should bow towards Oregon at least 5 times a day for data backup.

***Plus Oregon has never been a source of world terror.

MrBigBear in reply to Connect The Dots

Wow, you must be the only person in the world to represent both the Saudi export industry and the Oregon chamber of commerce! ;) But on a serious point the article - and your comment - does show that low taxes generate jobs, which in turn generate more tax receipts for the region. Major success story - plus a green edge. World class!


The benefits of a cool climate and proximity to Asia are priceless. Combined with the economic incentives, it's clear why so many companies choose the West Coast of the US for hosting their massive data cantres.
However, a shortcoming of this geographic location that was not mentioned in the article is its high seismic activity, which can have devastating impact on the data centres.
I hope the companies that build and maintain the servers are more prepared than the local authorities:


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