If Greenpeace had its wish your #1 criteria for where your data center goes is the renewable energy content. But, as we all know anyone who would do this wouldn't have a job in the data center business. Renewable energy is important, but it is not the the #1 criteria. #1 issues are Energy availability and cost, Bandwidth, and Ease of doing business.

Cushman&Wakefield just released their 2012 data centre risk index that provides a perspective in line with current data center thinking. Here is a data center risk mapped to the world.

Here is the criteria that Cushman&Wakefield used to rate countries. Note the sustainable energy is in Tier 2 which is 35% and 10% of the area is for sustainable energy, equalling 3.5% out of the total.

Should Greenpeace be protesting Cushman? Will they? Most likely not.

Greenpeace's criteria for what makes a good data center site is here.

Cushman's study shows the following as the top 10 countries for data centers on page 7 of their report.

It is good to see Cushman added more countries to its report for 2012.

Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)

Photo: Name Withheld; Digital Manipulation: Jesse Lenz

The spring air in the small, sand-dusted town has a soft haze to it, and clumps of green-gray sagebrush rustle in the breeze. Bluffdale sits in a bowl-shaped valley in the shadow of Utah’s Wasatch Range to the east and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. It’s the heart of Mormon country, where religious pioneers first arrived more than 160 years ago. They came to escape the rest of the world, to understand the mysterious words sent down from their god as revealed on buried golden plates, and to practice what has become known as “the principle,” marriage to multiple wives.