COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s decision to scrap a controversial energy tax has attracted the attention of Facebook, which looks set to build its third non-US data centre in the country.
The free content ad giant has, according to Fyens.dk, already invested 68 million kroner—more than £7.8 million—in a plot at Tietgenbyen in Odense, via Cassin Networks Aps.
If the development goes ahead, it will be Facebook’s third data centre outside the US. Facebook opened a facility in Luleå, Sweden in 2013 and has begun work for another in Clonee 30 kilometres west of Dublin in Ireland.
However, the Danish project is apparently dependent on the government scrapping the controversial PSO tax. The tax has been in place, for both private and business consumers, since 1998 to fund energy that is considered less harmful to the environment. The current 11 percent rate means Danes pay the European Union’s highest electricity prices.
But the European Commission ordered the government to ditch the tax because it violates EU rules since foreign producers cannot receive the same PSO-funded support as Danish producers.
The Danish government agreed earlier this year to abolish PSO gradually over the next six years, which according to the news agency Ritzau will result in a loss of 69.2 billion kroner.
The arrival of Facebook would seemingly go part way to making up that shortfall. Fyens.dk reported that 1,200 jobs would be created to build the 184,000 square-meter data centre. Facebook was yet to comment at time of publication.
