Norway aims to become one of the world's most attractive data center nations. Geographically, we have an advantage. The cool climate reduces energy consumption in the centers, and most of the power supply comes from renewable sources such as hydropower. In recent years, the number of data centres has grown considerably, and according to estimates, the industry could contribute 11,000 jobs by 2025.
The growth of data centres is a result of everything we do becoming increasingly digitized. Everything you as an individual do on your mobile phone during the day visits dozens of data centers when the information is "stored in the cloud". And there's more to come.Society is becoming hyper-digitalized, and the use of artificial intelligence will accelerate development. We will see a huge increase in data in cloud services, streaming and data processing. Data centers play a key role in handling all this data in a safe and secure way. The data centers themselves will also adopt AI to have the best solutions for storing data. Skygard will use technology from the new "AI factory" of Nvidia and Telenor, which will be operational from the fall.
At the same time, we have to realize that artificial intelligence is particularly power hungry. A search in a GPT chat, for example, can be four or five times as energy-intensive as a Google search. On top of this, who is looking after our data has become more important than before, from a security policy perspective and in view of increased cyber threats.In general, there is little knowledge about what the data center industry does and what we contribute to building a solid digital foundation in Norway. Politicians have been keen to take a tough line on crypto-mining, and the media spotlight is often on "crypto data centers". Skygard, and a number of other serious companies in the industry, have already acknowledged this by introducing their own internal guidelines stating that we do not want to work with customers who mine crypto.When the government presents a revised data center strategy in the near future, we hope it will continue to toe the tough crypto line. But we also hope that this debate can be parked once and for all. There are other and bigger discussions that need to be had when designing digital infrastructure for the future, such as sustainability.
Recently, the government presented a proposal for a new Electronic Communications Act, where Skygard's input has been that digital infrastructure should have sustainability requirements. "The distribution of power will be a very important discussion going forward, and a responsible approach is crucial.The reason we have placed a data center in Hovinbyen, in central Oslo, is because heat from the data center will be reused in Hafslund's district heating system and used to heat several thousand homes in the Oslo area. This will be important for the Oslo and Akershus area, which is also the region in Norway with the largest power deficit.As in all industries, there are serious and frivolous players in the data center industry. If we are to be played well, the understanding of what it actually contributes must be increased. And we need to elevate the discussions to be about more than crypto and cat videos on Tiktok.
