Facebook puts your photos into the deep freeze as it unveils massive new five acre data center near Arctic circle

• First plant outside U.S. will make Facebook faster for Europeans
• In northern Sweden 60 miles from Arctic Circle - will 'chill' computers using the weather for eight months per year
• Other web giants such as Google already host 'server farms' near Arctic to keep them cool
• Near huge dam on river that generates twice as much power as Hoover Dam
• Plant will have 14 backup diesel generators

Facebook's new server farm in the northern Swedish city of Lulea is the firm's first outside the U.S. - in a location chosen because the fierce cold will help to keep the company's racks of high-performance computers cool.

Facebook looked at several sites across Europe, and picked Lulea for its cold climate. The move will see Facebook become faster for users across Europe.

'Facebook has more users outside the U.S. than inside,' Facebook director of site operations Tom Furlong said. 'It was time for us to expand in Europe.'

Facebook confirmed that it had picked the northern Swedish city of Lulea for the data centre partly because of the cold climate - crucial for keeping racks of high-performance computers cool

He said European users would get better performance from having a node for data traffic closer to them. Facebook currently stores data at sites in California, Virginia and Oregon and is building another facility in North Carolina.

Companies rely on additional data centres not only to provide faster connections for people nearby, but also as backup in event of a system failure. 

Facebook Director of Operations, Tom Furlong unveils plans for the new facility in Lulea in northern Sweden - it's the firm's first data centre outside the U.S.

The Mayor of Lulea, Karl Petersen, and Matz Engman, CEO for Lulea Business Agency, show that they 'like' the proposed new plant

WHAT DO DATA CENTRES DO - AND WHY DO THEY USE SO MUCH POWER?

 Internet companies such as Facebook use huge 'server farms' such as this proposed plant to store and manage data.

The plants are filled with cupboard-sized racks of computer servers that store and move data such as photos. These slightly eerie, heavily guarded facilities are where sites such as Facebook and Google 'live'

The high-power computer equipment generates huge amount of heat - most data centres use chiller systems to stay cool.

Nordic countries now sell plants on the basis that their frosty locations will help cool computer equipment. Google already has a plant in Finland in a disused paper mill.

Facebook is also building new data centres in America - the more an internet company has, the better, as it has 'back-up' facilities in case of a failure.

The recent three-day collapse of BlackBerry's service was due to a data-centre crash. BlackBerry has been criticised for not having enough data centres

BlackBerry's recent service collapse was a testament to the damage that can be caused by companies having too few data centres to shoulder the load if one hits a technical hitch.

Located 60 miles (100 kilometers), south of the Arctic Cicle, Lulea lies near hydropower stations on a river that generates twice as much electricity as the Hoover Dam on the border of Nevada and Arizona, Facebook said.

In case of a blackout, construction designs call for each building to have 14 backup diesel generators with a total output of 40 MW.

The Lulea data center, which will consist of three 300,000-square foot (28,000-square meter) server buildings, is scheduled for completion by 2014. The site will need 120 MW of energy, fully derived from hydropower.

While many server farms rely on chiller systems, Facebook's will use an advanced cooling system powered by evaporating water. 

For around eight months of the year, the plant will cool itself using the icy outside air.

The heat from the server racks will also warm up the offices at the plant. 

Facebook didn't give the price of its investment, but Lulea officials have previously projected construction costs of up to 5 billion kronor ($760 million).

'We knocked on doors at Facebook's head office (in Palo Alto, California) and today they're moving in to Lulea — this is huge, really huge,' said Matz Engman, who heads the Lulea Business Agency, a public-private partnership working to attract businesses to the region.

With winter temperatures well below freezing and summertime highs that rarely climb above 80F (25 degrees Celcius), Lulea has used its frigid climate as a selling point in its efforts to establish itself as a hub for server farms. 

Other Nordic cities have adopted similar strategies.

In 2009 Google purchased a paper mill in Hamina, southern Finland, and turned it into a data center, using seawater from the Baltic Sea for its cooling system.

Servers inside data centers are the backbone of Internet services such as Facebook. The servers store and transmit billions of status updates, links, photos and all the outside apps used by Facebook's members.

Snowploughs clear an airport in Sweden: The cold near-Arctic climate will help to cool the racks of servers used by the company to store and move user data such as photographs

Data centres are monitored constantly for system failures and overheating. The buildings are often heavily guarded - both to ensure that the companies who rely on them get continued service, and to guard the hugely expensive computer equipment

Facebook is also currently building another data centre in Prineville Oregon. The company's expansion has been extremely rapid, and it needs more data centres to shoulder the load