– I am delighted that installing our first ever Green Edge data center went so effortlessly, says CEO Svein Harald Olavesen.
HP and GK completed the installation within a few days during week 20, and almost everything went as planned.
– Something unforeseen will happen during this kind of complex process. We received an error message from a sensor in our cooling system. After troubleshooting, we discovered that the sensor was defective. Luckily the supplier had included spare parts in the delivery. When we identified the error message source, it did not take long to fix the problem, says CEO Svein Harald Olavesen.
A technician from GK at the new data center at Sluppen in Trondheim. ( Photo: Green Edge Compute)
Innovative and sustainable at Sluppen in Trondheim
HP installed computer racks and other communication equipment, while GK has ensured that the power supply and the cooling system are in place. Green Edge Compute only uses liquid cooling in its centers, so its new concept is innovative and sustainable. A liquid cooling system occupies less space than an air cooling system. Thus, it is possible to build smaller data centers in existing buildings in urban areas with the same capacity as traditional data centers.
Trondheim was a perfect fit as a partner for the first data center project. The municipality is at the forefront of digital transformation and is developing into a smart city. Trondheim focuses on sustainable energy solutions, among other things, through Positive Energy Blocks (PEB) in the EU-funded project + CityxChange. PEB is a limited geographical area where more energy is produced than consumed.
- Read more: Trondheim municipality partners with Green Edge Compute to develop sustainable data center
One of these PEBs is localized at Sluppen, where Green Edge Compute has finished installing its new data center with a green profile. Traditional data centers are energy-intensive businesses, where surplus heat from cooling the servers is wasted. By combining HPE, Intel, CoolIT, and Green Edge Compute technology, we can reuse surplus heat from the data center by supplying it to Statkraft Varme. The energy is sold in a local market through a solution Volue has developed for Trønderenergi. All these factors combined equate to a very energy-efficient data center.
- An outstanding result that builds confidence
It took only three days to install the new, green data center. CEO at Green Edge Compute, Svein Harald Olavesen, was present in Trondheim to be part of this important and historic event in the company's history.
– It was amazing to see how fast we could complete the installation process and the excellent and professional result. We have a solid foundation and confidence when repeating the process in Stavanger shortly.
Due to the pandemic, delivery problems on some unique components led to an 8-month postponement of the project in Trondheim. Now that everything is in place, Green Edge Compute and their partners will be able to repeat the process in Stavanger quickly.
The sustainability is tested and measured by SINTEF
The brand-new data center in Trondheim is not used by customers yet.
– We are conducting tests in collaboration with Sintef, Miracle, and GK that hopefully will confirm our theoretical claims that our data center concept is more sustainable than the traditional data centers in the industry. We will perform tests at 50, 70, and 100% capacity and look at how this affects temperature and CO2 savings, says Olavesen and adds:
– It is an advantage to do the testing without real customers connected. This enables using simulations, which means more precise results, says Olavesen.
Green Edge already has several customers waiting to use the new data center in the capital of Trøndelag.
A grand tour of the new data center
– We are also planning several tours of the new data center. We want the stakeholders to be able to see the data center in action. I am looking forward to showing people what we have achieved. We plan to connect customers to the new data center in September at the earliest. Says Olavesen.
Green Edge Compute can quickly expand the data center as demand grows.
The results will be published on June the 15th
– The tricky part is behind us, and we will have much better control over delivery timelines in the future. As more customers are connected, we only need to deploy more servers. In a way, you can compare it to building legos. In addition, we can almost parallel get business up and running in Stavanger using our experiences from Trondheim. After Stavanger, Oslo is next.
on June the 15th, at Datasenterdagen, Green Edge Compute and SINTEF will publish the results from the ongoing testing. During our presentation, you will get the answers to exactly how much CO2 and energy is saved by utilizing our new data center concept.
