Verne Global this quarter will turn up operations at its zero-emissions data center in Iceland, with managed services provider Datapipe (News - Alert) as its first customer. The news comes nearly two years after the company first began heavily promoting its vision of creating a data center business that relies entirely on renewable energy.

Datapipe selected Verne, at least in part, because its model aligned with Datapipe’s own strategy of being a global leader in sustainable IT. All of Datapipe’s U.S. data centers are powered by renewable energy.

“The source, availability and cost of power remain one of the primary concerns for data centre operators around the globe,” says Verne Global CEO Jeff Monroe. “Verne Global addresses these concerns for our customers by bringing the benefit of dual-sourced, 100 percent renewable and affordable power to the European and North American data centre markets.”

Verne Global has an 18-hectare campus in Keflavik that is fueled by hydroelectric and geo-thermal power, and connected by subsea links between London and New York.

Earlier this fall, Verne Global tapped Colt (the U.K. CLEC that has moved into the data center space) to provide it with modular data centers, which are preconfigured solutions that can easily be shipped to and reassembled in Iceland to get data center customers up and running quickly.

“Partnering with Colt enables us to have a purpose-built facility that will be in operation before the end of 2011, supporting our mission of delivering the world’s first dual-sourced renewably powered data centre,” says Monroe. “We see a strong demand in the colocation market, and we required a partner who could provide highly resilient, flexible data centre space, configured to our specific technical requirements.”

As discussed in a January 2010 story in INTERNET TELEPHONY, a TMC (News - Alert) publication, Verne Global, aka Verne Holdings, in 2007 was formed as a joint venture of Cambridge-based venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners and Icelandic private equity outfit Novator. The idea was to address the needs primarily of European companies looking to save on data center-related costs. Monroe for that article told INTERNET TELEPHONY that companies in the United Kingdom, where energy costs are high, could use Verne Global’s data center in Iceland to realize $100 million in savings over a 10-year contract.

“It’s huge, huge savings in a market like the U.K. You compare it to a market like New York, New Jersey, and it can come in around $50 million to $60 million U.S. dollars,” he said at the time, adding power costs in Iceland are half to a third of the cost in major Northeastern U.S.