ewl opens a climate-neutral underground data center
Energie Wasser Luzern (ewl) has commissioned a sustainable data center in an underground tunnel. It offers high security and is operated CO2-neutrally with green electricity and seawater cooling.
The energy service provider ewl has opened an ecological data center underground, according to a media release . The building is based on state-of-the-art technology and sustainability through the use of renewable energies and can use the waste heat from the server park efficiently.
Because the data center is ideally connected to ewl’s own lake energy and communication network, ecological electricity can be used during ongoing operations. Lake water from Lake Lucerne is used for cooling. The waste heat from the computers is used to heat buildings in the vicinity.
In this combination, the data center is energy-efficient and sustainable and is “one of the most ecological data centers in Switzerland”, Patrik Rust, CEO of ewl, is quoted in the press release.
Important and sensitive data from various organizations are stored and secured in the data center. The IT infrastructure required for this consists of 600 server racks on an area of more than 1,600 square meters in a tunnel in Lucerne’s Wartegg hill. More than 50 years ago, there was a civil protection facility for the government council and the students of the canton school in Lucerne.
During construction, the rock was partially blasted. Thanks to the hard rock at the underground location, the data center can guarantee the “highest level of physical protection”. State-of-the-art technologies such as biometric access controls and non-stop video surveillance also contribute to data security.