What does it take to get a hyperscale data center built this late into 2026? A whole army of contract laborers living on a prison barge, apparently.
New reporting by Bloomberg revealed some bizarre details around the 30-megawatt data center being developed in Glomfjord, a small industrial village in Norway. Despite being heralded as a crown jewel of British data center company Nscale, the facility is at least six months behind schedule, with just 6.4 megawatts currently up and running.
There are plenty of reasons for the setbacks. Bloomberg notes that costly and avoidable mistakes account for most of the delays, with major cooling system leaks, labor issues, and a huge electrical fire setting construction far behind schedule.
Labor conditions are especially brutal, with workers complaining to the publication about working extremely long shifts without proper training or health and safety protocols in place. An investigation by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority found that Nscale’s personnel records were likewise abysmal, with some paperwork only noting a workers’ first name, Bloomberg noted.
Making up for lost time won’t be easy, and surely won’t improve working conditions. To get back on track, Nscale is reportedly looking to bring in hundreds of last-minute laborers. But with most of Glomfjord’s rentable hotel rooms already booked up, the data center developer needed a solution a housing. That’s where a vessel called The Kalmar comes in.
According to Bloomberg, the boat is a three-story prison barge — a dull, gray rectangular ship that was once used as a floating detention center for migrants. It seems that Nscale will soon begin using the Kalmar’s 500 cots to house its new army of contractors, who will commute off the hulking barge to the jobsite.
Like in other places throughout the world, Glomfjord’s 1,000-or-so residents aren’t too thrilled with the data center development. Though mayor Grethe Anita Andersen explained to Bloomberg that she hopes Nscale will deliver a paltry 40 permanent jobs, those aspirations are far from guaranteed.
As Sofie Marhaug, a parliamentarian for Norway’s socialist Red Party told the publication, data center developers “don’t have Norway’s best interests in mind.”
“The value is being made in other places, not in Norway,” Marhaug said. “They don’t move jobs from Silicon Valley to Norway — they just use our natural resources.”
More on data centers: Residents Reject $10,000 Each to Let a Data Center Set Up in Their Town
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