Green Mountain has entered into an agreement with TikTok to support their increasing data storage needs in Europe. A new 150 MW site, The OSL2-Hamar, is currently being constructed for this purpose.
A total of five data center buildings, each with a capacity of 30 MW, is planned at the site, making this Norway’s largest data center campus. The first building is scheduled for completion by November 2023. TikTok has signed an initial contract for 3 buildings and 90 MW of capacity, but with an opportunity to extend capacity up to 150 MW by 2025.
“The Hamar region is an ideal location for our data centers. Here, they have a surplus of renewable power, pre-zoned land areas and a competent workforce.” says CEO of Green Mountain, Svein Atle Hagaseth. The site will be built and operated according to Green Mountain’s high sustainability standards. This includes everything from the use of renewable power, certified green buildings and potential heat reuse projects.
The first hyperscale data center of this scale in Norway
“This is the first hyperscale data center of this scale in Norway and we are grateful for TikTok’s vote of confidence in the project. The site will become a true example of our vision of Setting the green standard.” Hagaseth adds.
Tomorrow, representatives of the Norwegian government, local authorities, TikTok and other stakeholders will take part in a launch event at Hamar. The project will create a considerable number of new jobs, and is much welcomed in the region.
“A cooperative and forward-looking attitude from the local authorities, power and grid company, contractor and other local stakeholders has been crucial in the realization of the project.” Hagaseth explains. “The government’s data center strategy has been an important reason why companies such as Green Mountain is experiencing growth and great demand for our services. This project demonstrates that Norway has gained a reputation as a perfect data center location.”
TikTok's Project Clover
Over 150 million people across Europe use TikTok every month. The company, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, now introduces Project Clover, which they promise will set a newstandard when it comes to data security. This initiative will introduce a number of new measures to strengthen existing protections and further align their overall approach to data governance with the principle of European data sovereignty. The aim is to create "a secure enclave for European TikTok user data".
In 2021 TikTok set out a data governance strategy for Europe based on the principles of storing data locally, minimising data transfers outside of the region, and further reducing employee access to TikTok user data. The company last year announced details of a European data centre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite that, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the EU diplomatic service and the EU Council last month banned TikTok from staff phones, over concerns China's government could harvest users' data. Now the company announces two more data centres: a second data centre in Dublin and the third one in Norway.
