The Swiss cloud provider Infomaniak officially inaugurated its new datacenter yesterday, in which 100% of the electricity used since November 11th. The facility is located in a Geneva residential area in the basement of the participatory and environmentally conscious cooperative La Bistoquette. It has no effect on the cityscape and uses 100% of the used local renewable energy. At full load, the data center 1.7 MW (corresponds to 14.9 GWH/year) feeds the cantonal district heating network. This means that 6000 Minergie-A households can be heated annually or 20,000 Geneva shower for 5 minutes a day. This new generation of Datacenter, which has already been awarded the Swiss Ethics Prize and the Prize for Sustainable Development of the Canton of Geneva, was documented by students from EPFL, IMD and the Unil to make it open source and its replica in a large scale make possible.
Inauguration of the Datacenter D4, which revolutionizes the cloud sector
The new Datacenter of Infomaniak, symbol of technological innovation and sustainability, was held yesterday in the presence of the Geneva State Councilor Antonio Hodger, the President of the Services industriors de Genève (SIG), Robert Cramer, and the client’s representative La BistoquettePauline Dayeret, handed over to his destination. Without its collective commitment, this world first that continues would not have been possible as a comparable above -ground or only a fraction of its power consumption.
Since 2 p.m. on November 11, 2024, the entire electricity consumed by this infrastructure in the form of heat has been fed into the district heating network of the Geneva canton. This implementation represents a milestone in the regional energy transition and makes an energy -intensive system an active player in energetic exploitation.
The Datacenter from Infomaniak, which currently uses 25% of its capacity, is gradually being busy, so it will be full of its full performance by 2028. This means that a sustainable contribution to society is made for at least 20 years.
The future of the cloud: circulatory -oriented energy and landscape -neutral
Infomaniak has already been honored several times for the energy efficiency of its infrastructures, which have been made without air conditioning since 2013. With this new Datacenter model, Infomaniak solves four major challenges of the cloud industry:
- 100% of the electricity used by the Datacenter is reused to heat households via a district heating network.
- It requires neither water nor an additional air conditioning for cooling.
- It is located under a residential area.
- It has no effect on the cityscape.
“In the real world, DATACENTER convert electrical energy into heat. In the course of the exponential growth of the cloud, this energy now fizzles out unused.explains Boris Siegenthaler, founder and strategic director of Infomaniak.
Nothing is lost, everything changes
In contrast to existing projects that reuse a fraction of their consumption, the system developed by Infomaniak goes one step further.
The entire electricity used (server, inverter, ventilation, etc.) is completely converted into heat – at a temperature of 40 to 45 ° C. This heat is then released to an air-water heat exchanger that transfers it into a hot water cycle. Then increase heat pumps the temperature of the water and lead the waste heat of the datacenter into the district heating network of Chapelle-les-scier in Geneva, which is ultimately connected to the structuring district heating network (RTS) of the canton.
The peculiarity of the system lies in the use of both functions of the pump:
- The gas of the heat pumps expands when it takes the energy to the water, the temperature of which drops from 45 ° C to 28 ° C. This lukewarm water current is led to the air-water heat exchanger to cool the servers, which makes conventional air conditioning superfluous.
- The gas of the pumps is then compressed and the energy is released to the district heating network. As a result, the water temperature increases to 67 ° C in summer and 85 ° C in winter in order to meet the needs of the district heating supplier.
This makes the recovery mechanism identical to the mechanism that keeps the servers on an optimal operating temperature. The additional energy required for the operation of the heat pumps is also being recycled, because the cold cast ensures that the server cools.
“Die PUE(1)with which the energy efficiency of data centers is expressed, today is no longer sufficient in view of the climate emergency. The ERE are also important(2)ie the relationship between the energy actually used and the reused energy, as well as the ERF(3)which corresponds to the proportion of the total energy of the data center, which is reused for other purposes such as district heating. These three indicators together provide a more comprehensive overview of the energetic effects of digital infrastructures “, explains Boris Siegenthaler, founder and strategic director of Infomaniak.
6000 heated apartments and annual savings of 3600 t CO2EQ
With full load, the new Datacenter will house around 10,000 servers with a base area of 1800 m2 underground. It will deliver an output of 1.7 MW to the district heating network of the canton of Geneva. With so much energy, 6000 Minergie-A households can be heated annually or 20,000 Geneva shower for 5 minutes a day.
As a result, the city will avoid the burning of 3600 t CO2EQ natural gas per year or the equivalent of 5500 t CO2EQ pellets per year – not to mention the 211 trucks per year with 13 t of payload and the microparticles, which during transport and burning the pellets arise.
Economically neutral process
The recycling of the waste heat is cost -neutral for infomaniac. Without the servers, this Datacenter costs CHF 12 million, of which CHF 6 million was promoted by the cloud provider to adapt the heat levels to the requirements of the district heating network. Part of these 6 million is subsidized by the Energy Office of the Canton of Geneva (OCEN) and by the district heating operator (GIS). The rest is gradually amortized by the heat generation of infomaniac at cost price.
From the location search (June 2019) to the commissioning of the first servers (December 2023), the project extended a total of over four and a half years. For comparison: the implementation of a Datacenter from Infomaniak usually takes two years. The main challenges were to find a secure location near a district heating network that can constantly absorb the amount of heat and negotiate a contract with the district heating operator.
Use for the local economy
The data center strengthens the technological independence of Europe and creates added value for many local companies by using only devices produced in Europe (with the exception of the security cameras):
- Heat pumps Trane (France)
- Fans ebmpapst (Germany)
- Strom tracks Siemens (Germany)
- Distribution panels Siemens (Germany)
- Server racks Minkels (Netherlands)
- Inverter ABB (Switzerland)
- Stromaggregate Margen (Italy)
- Solar panel Meyer-Burger (Switzerland / Germany)
The local economy will also benefit directly from this project.
A new generation of open source computing centers
This innovation is reproducible and the know-how is made available free of charge. The model works and shows the cloud industry and the political decision-makers that the energy from data centers can be used twice and that IT systems can no longer be regarded as end users of electricity, but as an actor of the energy transition.
The new Datacenter from Infomaniak, which was already awarded the Swiss Ethics Prize and the Prize for Sustainable Development of the Canton of Geneva in 2023, was e4s.center Documented to illustrate its energy efficiency in real time and enable its replica. The results are under https://d4project.org/ freely available and include:
- A technical guide that explains how this Datacenter model can be reproduced.
- Real-time monitoring of the operational performance of the data center.
- Summary for political decision -makers with information to improve the forms of construction and the sustainability of data centers.
Two new comparable data centers are already being planned
In order to support its growth, Infomaniak is actively looking for district heating networks for its future datacenters. “We can already feed 1.1 MW into a district heating network, and by 2028 a new data center with at least 3.3 MW will be needed to cover the demand. The principle is simple: we obtain the current locally and release our CO2-free waste heat free of charge”makes Boris Siegenthaler clear.
Key figures
- Average PUE: 1.09 (European average: 1.6 (4)).
- ERE and ERF: See the information online
- 2 heat pumps of 1.7 MW.
- Total area: 1800 m2.
- Total Budget (ohnne servers): 12 millionnies.
- Total capacity, which is recycled at full load: 1.7 MW.
- Number of servers at full load: approx. 10,000 (200 racks of 47U).
- Capacity of the solar power plant connected to this datacenter: 130 kWp (364 modules).
- Graphics processors currently installed in this datacenter: NVIDIA L4, A100 and H100.
resources
Infomaniak – The Ethical Cloud
Infomaniak is committed to digital independence, the local economy and environmental protection. As a Swiss cloud provider, Infomaniak develops a suite of collaborative online tools and solutions for cloud hosting, streaming, marketing and events. The company is partly owned by its employees and only covers its expenses with its customers. Infomaniak only uses local renewable energy, builds its own datacenter and develops its solutions in Switzerland – without relocating location. Infomaniak is a registrar accredited by Icann, and its solutions are used by leading public and private organizations across Europe, including the Belgian radio and TV broadcaster (RTBF), the United Nations, Central Banks, more than 3000 radio and TV Sender as well as big cities and security organizations.
(1) Power Usage Effectiveness: With the PUE, the total energy consumption of the data center is compared with the actual energy consumption of the servers.
(2) Energy Reuse Effectiveness: The ERE measures the energy efficiency of a data center, taking into account the reuse of the emitted thermal energy.
(3) Energy Reuse Factor: The ERF measures the proportion of the total energy consumption of a data center, which is efficiently reused outside of the data center (e.g. for heating buildings).