contents
Data centers require massive amounts of electricity. In the crisis, they should not only save electricity, but also deliver it.
They have many of our memories, many a life’s work. The most intimate data such as photos, emails, doctoral theses, and health information are now stored in large, windowless data centers somewhere in the country. Secured like Fort Knox and with the power consumption of small towns, they should also make a contribution in the energy crisis. Some are already doing this, as the new flagship project by the Swiss IT provider Green in Dielsdorf ZH shows.
High security and power consumption like the city of Bülach
The site is under video surveillance and there are high fences all around. If you want to get in, you have to identify yourself with a 3D fingerprint and other biometric data. “It’s like a bank,” says Andrea Campomilla, technical manager of the Green data center in Dielsdorf. Today data is as valuable as money or even more valuable and therefore protected against every imaginable danger. Against hacker attacks as well as against fire or flooding. Very important: absolute protection against power failures. «A data center must always be running. No electricity would be death.” The countless servers therefore run day and night, 365 days a year.
We could save 50 percent electricity.
No wonder the power consumption is enormous. The entire campus in Dielsdorf will consume electricity in the same size range as the city of Bülach, as the NZZ recently calculated.
Three data centers are planned in Dielsdorf. However, Campomilla does not want them to be described as mere energy guzzlers. “We obtain electricity exclusively from renewable energies,” he emphasizes. Solar panels will also be installed on the roofs.
And: Professional data centers are energy-efficient. He identifies all the small data centers and server rooms of private individuals or small companies as the real culprits. “If they would outsource their data to professional providers, we could save up to 50 percent electricity.”
The data center in Dielsdorf also supplies electricity. “The waste heat from the servers doesn’t just go to waste.” It is fed into the local district heating network. This means that the first data center will heat 3,500 apartments and offices in Dielsdorf from January.
Controversy in the Zurich Cantonal Council
But this should only be the beginning: The Zurich cantonal council wants to oblige all data centers in the canton of Zurich to make their waste heat available for heating. The urgent push by GLP, SP and EVP was passed with 139 to 28 votes. “It’s obvious to use the waste heat to heat our homes instead of the environment,” said GLP Cantonal Councilor Michael Zeugin.
The SVP believed that the advance would be an open door and therefore not really necessary. The party eventually agreed. Only the FDP was completely against it. She sees the advance as a “frontal attack on a new industry,” as FDP cantonal councilor Alex Gantner said. A new compulsion that prevents a new business model in the canton of Zurich and has nothing to do with progress. The FDP was alone with this opinion. The governing council now has one year to prepare a report.