Facebook to Enter Nebraska Market with 970 KSF Data Center

Online giant Facebook has announced plans to develop its ninth data center facility in Papillion, Neb., roughly 9 miles south of Omaha. The 970,000-square-foot facility located in the developing Silicon Prairie is expected to be operational as early as 2020.

The state of Nebraska joined forces with the Greater Omaha Chamber, the Sarpy County Economic Development Corp., Sarpy County, the city of Papillion, the Metropolitan Utilities District and the Omaha Public Power District to attract Facebook to the Cornhusker State. The construction of new wind farms in the area will allow the tech giant to power its new data center with 100% wind-generated electricity.

“In the past year, I had the chance to visit Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California and meet with executives who are instrumental in building the company’s data center ecosystem,” Governor Pete Ricketts said in a statement. “We were able to demonstrate that Nebraska can meet or exceed their expectations on every front.”

According to the Omaha World Herald, the facility will be Facebook’s sixth data center in the U.S. and one of the most advanced and energy-efficient data centers in the world. Situated on a sprawling 146-acre campus, the project consists of two 450,000-square-foot buildings accompanied by a 70,000-square-foot administrative building. According to the newspaper, the Papillion site will be Facebook’s first Nebraska location. The company currently operates data centers in Prineville, Ore., Forest City, N.C., Lulea, Sweden and Altoona, Iowa. Construction is also underway on new data center facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, Clonee, Ireland, Los Lunas, N.M., and Odense, Denmark.

By Ioana Neamt