Facebook announced Thursday that it will build a new $450 million data center in Forest City, North Carolina, which will open in 2012.
The data center, located about 60 miles outside of Charlotte, will employ more than 250 construction and mechanical workers during the 18-month construction process and 35 to 45 full-time and contract workers once it opens.
"We are proud that Facebook chose to make North Carolina a 'friend.' The feeling is certainly mutual," Gov. Bev Perdue said in a statement. "The investment and jobs at the data center will be a boon to that region of the state, and will help confirm North Carolina's distinction as a global business destination."
Facebook has been working with the governor's office for about a year to iron out details regarding land, utilities, and incentives, Perdue said.
"After a rigorous review of sites across the East Coast, we are pleased to locate our new data center in Rutherford County. The team we will hire here will help us provide faster, more reliable and more robust service to people around the world who rely on Facebook to connect and share," said Tom Furlong, director of site operations for Facebook.
Facebook said its data center will be "one of the most energy efficient data centers" in the U.S. via innovative cooling and power management technologies.
In January, Facebook announced plans for its first custom data center in Prineville, Oregon. The company wanted to consolidate its various, rented data centers into one, custom-built structure. At the time, Facebook touted the center's energy-efficient technologies, including an evaporative cooling system that negated the need for traditional chiller systems, its re-use of server heat, and a power-supply technology that reduces electricity usage by up to 12 percent.
In recent months, Facebook said it would double the size of its Prineville data center. When the site opened, Facebook had 350 million members; that has now grown to 500 million.
The Prineville location made headlines in September when Greenpeace accused Facebook of using coal-powered electricity. Facebook defended the data center and said that its power provider, Pacific Power, vowed to increase its renewable energy mix in the coming years.
North Carolina is home to several high-tech data centers. Apple is set to open one in Maiden, NC "any day now," according to local officials. Google also has a $600 million data center in Lenoir, NC. In February, IBM announced that it would build a new, $362 million data center at its Research Triangle Park campus.