Google says its data centres use half the energy of typical data centres, and its efficiency report for the first quarter of 2012 points to an even greener future. The company's impressive statistics are achieved through simple energy saving methods including efficient temperature management, reductions in residual energy loss and actually constructing its own sites. As the use of cloud computing services become more and more prevalent the data centre industry is set to boom and Google is pushing to give keep this expansion green with facilities like its new data centre in Hamina, Finland.

But Google goes to even greater lengths than that. Not only does it use recycled water to save both money and resources, but it constructs its own facilities, carefully selecting climates that exhibit perfect conditions for data centres. A great example of this is the company's new facility in Hamina, Finland, which is built on the Baltic Sea and achieves chiller-less cooling through the use of sea-water.

Source: Giz Mag