Facebook to open 10th data centre in Ohio in boost to state’s tech sector

Facebook will spend US$750 million on a new data centre in central Ohio in another boost for the state’s growing technology sector, the company announced on Tuesday.

The world’s biggest social media company joined Republican Governor John Kasich and a host of other dignitaries to announce its 10th data centre will be in New Albany, just northeast of Columbus.

The 22-acre (8.9-hectare) data centre will be powered exclusively with renewable energy. It is expected to employ 100 people to start and to begin providing services in 2019.

Rachel Peterson, the company’s director of data centre strategy and development, said several factors attracted Facebook to the location, including fibre and power infrastructure, government support, livability and the availability of high-tech talent.

“We look at that community fit and how we’re going to live and work in a community,” she said. “We not only live there. We work there, too. We hire there locally. So we want to make sure there’s a strong fit.”

She said the availability of renewable energy sources, including wind, solar and hydro, was critical to the decision, a factor underlined by Kasich, who has pushed back against legislative efforts to turn back the state’s alternative energy requirements.

“It is critical that we continue developing the renewables, because, believe me, at the end of the day, if the Facebooks and the Googles and the PayPals and the Amazons think that we are not committed to renewable energy, they will not come here. Period, end of story,” he said.