Geneva's homes will be heated by recycled energy from this revolutionary Swiss data centre
A Swiss data centre inaugurated this week will use recycled energy to generate heat for homes in the area.
Geneva-based Infomaniak has been recovering 100 per cent of the electricity it uses since November 2024.
The recycled power will be able to fuel the centralised heating network in the Canton of Geneva and benefit around 6,000 households.
The centre is currently operating at 25 per cent of its potential capacity. It aims to reach full capacity by 2028.
Swiss data centre leads the way for a greener cloud industry
The data centre hopes to point to a greener way of operating in the electricity-heavy cloud industry.
"In the real world, data centres convert electricity into heat. With the exponential growth of the cloud, this energy is currently being released into the atmosphere and wasted,' Boris Siegenthaler, Infomaniak's Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, told news site FinanzNachrichten.
'There is an urgent need to upgrade this way of doing things, to connect these infrastructures to heating networks and adapt building standards."
Infomaniak has received several awards for the energy efficiency of its complexes, which operate without air conditioning - a rarity for hot data centres.
The company also builds infrastructure underground so that it doesn't have an impact on the environment.
Swiss data centre recycles heat for homes
At Infomaniak, all the electricity that powers equipment like servers, inverters and ventilation is converted into heat at a temperature of 40 to 45C.
This is then channelled to an air/water exchanger which filters it into a hot water circuit. Heat pumps are used to increase its temperature to 67C in summer and 85C in winter.
How many homes will be heated by the data centre?
When the centre is operating at full capacity, it will supply Geneva's heating network with 1.7 megawatts, the amount needed for 6,000 households per year or for 20,000 people to take a 5-minute shower every day.
This means the Canton of Geneva can save 3,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2eq) of natural gas every year, or 5,500 tCO2eq of pellets annually.
The system in place at Infomaniak's data centre is free to be reproduced by other companies. There is a technical guide available explaining how to replicate the model and a summary for policymakers that advises how to improve design regulations and the sustainability of data centres.
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