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Iceland's energy production and data capacities

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Here are some of the technical details behind Iceland's bid to attract some of the world's data centers. See also GRAPHICS: http://link.reuters.com/ven45w ABUNDANT ENERGY * Iceland produces enough energy to power 1.65 million homes in a year, far more than its 300,000-strong population, according to 2013 data from Iceland's energy authority and Reuters calculations. * The excess energy goes to three aluminum smelters owned by the likes of Rio Tinto and Alcoa with a total capacity of 820 million tonnes a year. * Its energy infrastructure is the world's best according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2015 from the Swiss-based IMD Business School. * It produces more power per capita than any country in the world according to the World Economic Forum. CABLE CAPACITY AND SPEED * Cables connect Iceland to the United States via Greenland and Canada, to Britain and to mainland Europe via Denmark and Germany. * Cable has a capacity of 1.9 terabits per second (Tbps) to Canada, from where data can continue through to the United States. * Cable to Britain has a capacity of 8 Tbps and there is a capacity of 24.8 Tbps to Denmark and Germany. * Iceland plans to expand this capacity but the government-backed Invest in Iceland did not wish to disclose by how much. * Data can be transferred more quickly from Reykjavik to New York than from the Finnish and Swedish data center locations, according to a latency study provided by Invest in Iceland. * Data transfers to London have roughly the same speed from Iceland, Finland and Norway. (Reporting by Alxeander Tange; editing by Philippa Fletcher)