Pan-European collaboration creates the next generation of data centres

The EU research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, has awarded a three year innovation project in Northern Sweden. The aim is to prototype the most energy and cost efficient datacenter in the world.

Tuesday, 10th October 2017 Posted 6 years ago in by Phil Alsop

A pan-European consortium consisting of Hungarian data center engineering specialist H1 Systems, UK based cooling provider EcoCooling, German research institute Fraunhofer IOSB, RISE SICS North and infrastructure developers Boden Business Agency, have joined forces aiming to design and validate a future proof concept.

The demand of datacenter capacity is constantly growing and at the same time the minimization of environmental impact is crucial. The mission of the ˆ3million project is to drive development as far as possible to meet and unify these conditions. The unique solution offers a sustainable datacenter building which is energy and resource efficient throughout its lifecycle, cheaper to build and operate and brings jobs and knowledge to remote places in large parts of Europe.

The 500kW prototype facility will be an experimental lab and demonstration site, as it will be tested by providers and end-users in a real operation environment with all aspects of its operations measured. Project stakeholders will validate feasibility, energy efficiency and usability of the prototype, as well as developing predictive models to aid in future planning and deployment of the concept.

Limited colocation space is available for end-users that are willing to take part in the research experience.

Consortium member’s statement

“It is an honor for us to be a member of a consortium where our engineering expertise and commitment to efficiency can be combined with the high end competences represented by the respected partners like RISE SICS, Ecocooling, Fraunhofer IOSB and Boden Business Agency. This cooperation will drive to a cutting-edge solution in data center design and construction methodology that can be used over a large part of the World," said L?szl? Kozma, General Director of H1Systems Engineering Services.

Alan Beresford, EcoCooling managing director, added: “The Horizon2020 project is a superb opportunity for EcoCooling to work with an extremely talented and experienced team in furthering the knowledge of data centre cooling. Data centre operators will be able to use the data captured to determine the most appropriate, efficient, cost effective and sustainable solution to their enterprise needs."