Schneider Electric > Case Studies > Zero emissions data center cools servers with gravity-enabled sea water distribution

Zero emissions data center cools servers with gravity-enabled sea water distribution

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Europe

Country

Norway

Product

Symmetra MW UPSs
Canalis LV busway
Prisma LV Distribution
SM6 + transformers
Uniflair technical room coolers

Tech Stack

DCIM tools
Control components
Measuring points

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Energy Saving
Environmental Impact Reduction

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Use Cases

Energy Management System
Infrastructure Inspection

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Hardware Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Green Mountain is a colocation data center located on the island of Rennesoy, near Stavanger, Norway. It is co-developed by Smedvig, a Norwegian shipping firm, Ergogroup, a leading Nordic IT services firm, and Lyse Energi, a Norwegian electric utility. The data center is unique as it is buried deep inside a mountain on the island and abuts a cold water fjord. The data center is situated in a former NATO munitions bunker, making it one of the most secure in the world. The data center has been operational since 2013 and has over 13,600 square meters of space distributed across six halls to support the critical uptime needs of colocation customers. The facility has been designed to scale to 25MW.

The Challenge

Green Mountain, a data center located in Norway, aimed to establish itself as one of the most efficient data centers in the world with a Power Utilization Efficiency (PUE) rating of 1.2. The data center, co-developed by Smedvig, Ergogroup, and Lyse Energi, is located deep inside a mountain and abuts a cold water fjord. The challenge was to power the data center with cheap, reliable, low carbon hydropower and cool it with seawater from the nearby fjord, using gravity as a key factor in the distribution of that cold water to the data center. The goal was to build a zero emissions data center cooled by gravity-enabled sea water distribution and powered exclusively on renewable energies.

The Solution

Schneider Electric was chosen as one of the main designers and equipment suppliers for the Green Mountain data center. Schneider Electric installed data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools, control components, and about 12,000 measuring points. The hardware implementation included Symmetra MW UPSs, Canalis LV busway, Prisma LV Distribution, SM6 + transformers, MV/Citect Scada, Uniflair technical room coolers, and InfraStruxure hot aisle containment systems with in-row coolers and racks. Schneider Electric also helped design the cooling system that uses gravity to bring the cold water from the fjord to the data center’s cooling station. This is done without using any power and without relying on refrigerant gases.

Operational Impact

The data center is powered by cheap, reliable, low carbon hydropower.
The data center is cooled by seawater from the nearby fjord, and gravity is a key factor in the distribution of that cold water to the data center.
The data center is one of the most secure in the world with the original heavy, 0.5m/1.6 ft-thick NATO blast doors still in place and tunnels deep in the ground being the only means of access.
The data center achieved a “Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility” designation from the Uptime Institute in Q2 of 2015. A Tier III data center requires no shutdowns for equipment replacement and maintenance.

Quantitative Benefit

The data center boasts a Power Utilization Efficiency (PUE) rating of 1.2.
Cooling costs are reduced by around 30% when compared to traditional mechanical cooling.
Green Mountain wholesale customers can achieve the low 1.2 PUE consistently – every hour, every day of the entire year.