Facebook has officially opened its data center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“Today, we are excited to announce that the Facebook data center in Huntsville is now serving traffic,” the company said in a statement. “That means this data center is now part of the highly advanced infrastructure that helps billions of people around the world connect via Facebook apps and services.”
The social media company broke ground on the facility in 2018. The $750 million project was originally due to span 970,000 square feet (90,116 sq m) and open in 2020. Construction was briefly suspended in March due to Covid-19.
Even before construction had finished the company was reported to be planning to expand the campus. Facebook is constructing two additional buildings for the facility on top of the two original ones located on the North Huntsville Industrial Park, taking its total investment in the site to more than $1 billion.
The company has also invested in local Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to offset the facility's power usage. It signed a deal with Tennessee Valley Authority in 2018 to build solar facilities capable of producing 377MW; one in Colbert County, Alabama, a 227MW installation from First Solar. The other will be in Lincoln County, Tennessee, a 150MW NextEra Energy Resources project.
“Sustainability is a focus at all of our data centers, including the one here in Huntsville, where our operations are supported by 100 percent renewable energy,” the company said. “We are bringing more than 227MW of new renewable energy to the Alabama grid with a solar project in Muscle Shoals.”
2021 has seen Facebook invest heavily in its data center infrastructure. In July the company brought its Eagle Mountain, Utah facility online, and broke ground on its new data center in Mesa, Arizona.
The company has also announced a total of 12 other new data centers at its Altoona, Papillion, Prineville, Los Lunas, Huntsville, and Eagle Mountain campuses, totaling more than five million sq ft (464,500 sq m) of new space to its facilities.
