Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development
Access to electric power and land are now key locational issues for the datacentre sector and most Nordic countries are pitching for their business. We use a comparative case analysis to illustrate several interrelated themes in Norway and Iceland, as both develop their datacentre sectors, but to da...
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Elsevier
2022
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Online Access: | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/ http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/1/infrastructuring%20paper%20full%205.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102617 |
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ftunivsussex:oai:sro.sussex.ac.uk:104591 2023-07-30T04:04:25+02:00 Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development Upham, Paul Sovacool, Benjamin Monyei, Chukwuka 2022-06-01 application/pdf http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/ http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/1/infrastructuring%20paper%20full%205.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102617 en eng Elsevier http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/1/infrastructuring%20paper%20full%205.pdf Upham, Paul, Sovacool, Benjamin and Monyei, Chukwuka (2022) Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development. Political Geography, 96. a102617 1-13. ISSN 0962-6298 cc_by_nc_nd_4 Article PeerReviewed 2022 ftunivsussex https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102617 2023-07-11T20:45:11Z Access to electric power and land are now key locational issues for the datacentre sector and most Nordic countries are pitching for their business. We use a comparative case analysis to illustrate several interrelated themes in Norway and Iceland, as both develop their datacentre sectors, but to date in differing ways. In both, digitalisation and datacentres are supported financially through equity holdings and securitisation issued via bespoke investment firms. For datacentres, this finance backs commoditised packages consisting of land with pre-approved planning permission; access to low-cost, reliable, renewable power; and a range of built infrastructure and computing options. Seeking to benefit from the development of monetised, dependent, regional Information Technology ecosystems, states assist with regulatory adjustments and municipalities with supportive land use zoning. Given the deeply entrained and multifaceted nature of the sector, we use our cases to highlight relationships between datacentre financing, spatial planning and infrastructure development in the two countries and also the ways in which the sector may take differing development trajectories. Overall, we build on the developing literature that is revealing the material realities of ‘the cloud’. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland University of Sussex: Sussex Research Online Norway Political Geography 96 102617 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Sussex: Sussex Research Online |
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ftunivsussex |
language |
English |
description |
Access to electric power and land are now key locational issues for the datacentre sector and most Nordic countries are pitching for their business. We use a comparative case analysis to illustrate several interrelated themes in Norway and Iceland, as both develop their datacentre sectors, but to date in differing ways. In both, digitalisation and datacentres are supported financially through equity holdings and securitisation issued via bespoke investment firms. For datacentres, this finance backs commoditised packages consisting of land with pre-approved planning permission; access to low-cost, reliable, renewable power; and a range of built infrastructure and computing options. Seeking to benefit from the development of monetised, dependent, regional Information Technology ecosystems, states assist with regulatory adjustments and municipalities with supportive land use zoning. Given the deeply entrained and multifaceted nature of the sector, we use our cases to highlight relationships between datacentre financing, spatial planning and infrastructure development in the two countries and also the ways in which the sector may take differing development trajectories. Overall, we build on the developing literature that is revealing the material realities of ‘the cloud’. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Upham, Paul Sovacool, Benjamin Monyei, Chukwuka |
spellingShingle |
Upham, Paul Sovacool, Benjamin Monyei, Chukwuka Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development |
author_facet |
Upham, Paul Sovacool, Benjamin Monyei, Chukwuka |
author_sort |
Upham, Paul |
title |
Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development |
title_short |
Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development |
title_full |
Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development |
title_fullStr |
Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development |
title_full_unstemmed |
Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development |
title_sort |
digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via nordic datacentre development |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/ http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/1/infrastructuring%20paper%20full%205.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102617 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/104591/1/infrastructuring%20paper%20full%205.pdf Upham, Paul, Sovacool, Benjamin and Monyei, Chukwuka (2022) Digital bricolage: infrastructuring lower carbon digital space via Nordic datacentre development. Political Geography, 96. a102617 1-13. ISSN 0962-6298 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc_nd_4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102617 |
container_title |
Political Geography |
container_volume |
96 |
container_start_page |
102617 |
_version_ |
1772815840916275200 |