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Swiss data centre used to heat homes

A data center that also heats homes
A data center that also heats homes Keystone-SDA

Geneva-based Infomaniak has inaugurated a new type of data centre that aims to heat 6,000 homes using heat generated by the facility's computer servers.

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The data centre in Plan-les-Ouates is located in the basement of a residential area near the La Bistoquette participative cooperative.

+ The environmental impact of Switzerland’s supercomputer

It is currently operating at only 25% capacity and will reach full capacity by 2028, when it will house around 10,000 servers.

Infomaniak’s facility is unique in that it recycles all the electricity it consumes. The heat recovered can be used to heat 6,000 homes in winter. To put it into perspective, it’s equivalent to the energy used by 20,000 people taking a five-minute shower every day.

Thanks to this installation, it will be possible to avoid burning 3,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2eq) of natural gas every year, or 5,500 tCO2eq of pellets annually.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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