An official announcement from Facebook states that the social media company will open a new European data center near Dublin.
Located in the town of Clonee, only 9.5 miles west of Dublin, the real-estate project is the sixth data center that Facebook opens globally and the second one in the Old Continent.
The scaffolding should be assembled soon, with completion estimated for the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018.
Facebook opened its first European data center in Sweden in 2013. The tech company made a point out of fitting the Lulea center with renewable energy systems. Facebook was so determined to make the facility 100 percent environmentally friendly that it "[used] the chilly Nordic air" for cooling purposes.
The upcoming center in Ireland will feature an eco-friendly design approach as well.
The Clonee data center takes notes from its Swedish predecessor when it comes to cooling mechanisms. However, due to the higher levels of salt in the air, the Irish facility will pack advanced air filters in its HVAC system.
"Clonee will be packed full of cutting-edge technology, making it one of the most advanced, efficient and sustainable data centers in the world," says Tom Furlong, Facebook's vice president for site operations.
Facebook embedded green technologies in its national data centers, too. The company's data center in Altoona, Iowa, works entirely based on wind-generated electricity.
According to the social media company, all the hardware and software solutions for the Irish data center come from the Open Compute Project.
Furlong points out that everything from servers to racks and other necessary components in the new location are the result of the collective efforts behind Open Compute Project.
"[Open Compute Project is] an industry-wide coalition of companies dedicated to creating energy- and cost-efficient infrastructure solutions and sharing them as open source," Furlong explains.
Mark Zuckerberg's enterprise is not the first big name in the tech industry to see the potential behind Ireland's taxation system. The country has data centers from important players in the tech global market, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
Observant readers might notice that Apple is missing from the list, even if the iOS developer is an important contributor to Ireland's budget. The Cupertino-based company already has a development center in the Southern Ireland province of Cork, and it is preparing to open a data center, as well.
According to a press release from Tim Cook's company in February 2015, Apple will open two data centers in Europe, with one of them in Athenry, County Galway, Ireland. Both data centers will span over 166,000 square meters (1,787,000 square feet) and should start functioning in 2017.
"In Athenry , [...] Apple will recover land previously used for growing and harvesting non-native trees and restore native trees to Derrydonnell Forest," the press release promises.
Facebook started pondering the possibility of opening the new data center in Ireland as early as June last year, but it is safe to assume that it waited until all was settled with the authorities.
Facebook designated Ireland as its international headquarters beginning 2009.
