Location is becoming increasingly important to the Green Data Center marketplace. I've previously noted the popularity of the Columbia River Valley for mega data centers due to its inexpensive and low-carbon hydroelectricity, its climate for cooling, and its fiber optic infrastructure. An Icelandic data center is now putting location front and center in its promotion.

US company Verne Global cites what it calls the "Icelandic Advantage" of its data center:

"100% Green Energy: All of Iceland's electricity comes from affordable, sustainable geothermal and hydroelectric energy... These resources are 100% renewable, with no green energy price premium...you're guaranteed a supply of continuous, high-quality electricity at a fixed rate...for up to 20 years..."
"Free Cooling The mean annual temperature in Iceland is -0.5°C (30°F) in January and 13°C (55°F) in July...As a result, we can handle power densities of up to 15 to 20 kW per rack using cooling from Iceland's ambient temperature alone."
"Less natural disaster risk than the U.S., U.K. or India"

The company also notes that its data center is in a repurposed military facility, a growing trend.

The Verne Global site offers a strong online presentation of a green data center and offers lots of supporting data, down to the geology of its location, and white papers.

Microsoft is considering Iceland as a data center location, as are other large industry players.

(See how a unique Swedish data center is promoting its natural cooling advantag and learn more about innovative approaches to cooling data centers.)

Update 2010.05.20
Another Icelandic company using the country's assets for Green ICT is start-up Greenqloud .

Update 2010.05.28
See data on Iceland and other countries and areas with low CO2e/kWh and on the debate about what is truly clean/green energy.

Update 2010.05.29
See how CloudSigma presents the location-specific benefits of Switzerland and how an Icelandic data center is dealing with volcanic ash.

Update 2010.05.30
Icelandic data center ThorDC reports, "Opera Software ASA, a Norwegian software company, primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers [signed] an agreement to move a significant part of its electronic data traffic to the Thor Data Center...the Thor data center will be the most eco-friendly data center in the world. This is both due to the type of technology it utilizes and because it uses only renewable energy from local sources."