David Chernicoff over at ZDNet writes about Norway’s Green Mountain Data Center. The data center promotes itself as the greenest in the world because it uses 100 percent renewable energy and takes advantage of seawater cooling. It’s housed in an underground facility and Norway is geologically stable, a consideration that many data centers in places like California have to consider.

What’s most interesting to me, though, isn’t the renewable energy sourcing capabilities but the fact that the data center is offering customers locked in electricity pricing for 3 to 10 years at the rate of 37.5 Euros per megawatt, which is very competitive in Europe where electricity is very expensive. I’ve been noting the trend toward locked in electricity pricing for a while. More than anything, in areas where renewable energy is abundant and stable, it’s often possible to have very long term visibility on pricing compared to fossil fuel generated power where pricing is impacted by the global market for natural gas and coal.

Data centers in Iceland have this pricing advantage because the nation runs on hydroelectric and geothermal energy, and those colocation data centers can offer long term pricing guarantees for customers. And if you’re trying to convince a major IT provider to move their data center operations to places like Norway and Iceland, which are a bit off the beaten track, then being able to guarantee pricing is a key advantage, which could encourage IT providers to seek out data centers with renewable energy sources.