Despite the near collapse of its economy, the dream of harnessing Iceland's geothermal energy to power the northern hemisphere's datacentres lives on, according to two of the companies involved in the country's emerging datacentre industry.

Earlier this year, Iceland-based datacentre operator Data Islandia and storage giant Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) had outlined ambitious plans to establish the country as a global "datacentre capital", offering firms the opportunity to store their data in secure facilities, with ready access to affordable, zero-carbon energy sourced from the country's geothermal power stations.

Iceland has since become one of the highest profile victims of the global financial crisis, with its banking sector and currency collapsing as the country's government has been forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $6bn (£3.95bn) emergency bailout.

However, both Data Islandia and HDS are insisting that the economic crisis gripping the country is having limited impact on its attractiveness as a datacentre location.

"All the assets that made Iceland an attractive location for storing data to begin with are still there," explained Sol Squire, managing director for offshore operations at Data Islandia. "The model remains hugely viable – there has been no diminishing of the 100 per cent green energy from Iceland and while it will take time for the economic bruising to heal, we are confident we can reassure customers."

To help bolster customer confidence in the stability of the company, Data Islandia recently launched an independent sister company, called Data Islandia Offshore (DIOS) that is registered and based in the UK.

The new company has also strengthened ties with Data Islandia partner HDS, and the two companies have pledged to press ahead with plans to build a new datacentre facility in Iceland.

Alec Selvon-Bruce, eco-solutions champion at HDS, said that work on the technical specifications for the new facility would begin next year, adding that the involvement of a global firm such as HDS in the project represented a " major vote of confidence" in the country's continued attractiveness as a datacentre location.

Squire added that despite the economic conditions, the two companies remained confident they will be able to finance the project. "We have a capitalisation challenge in Iceland, but there are other interested parties outside of Iceland," he said.

He also argued that there was a silver lining to the economic crisis in the form of the collapse in value of the Icelandic Krona from Kr55 to the dollar to Kr132 to the dollar.

"All the assets that made Iceland an attractive location are still there and functional – it has just become much more attractive fiscally," he said.

"For example, the cost of using fibre cables to transmit data to Icelandic datacentres has become more attractive as a result of the fall in the value of the currency."