In the Norwegian abandoned mine will build the largest data center in Europe

The size of the future data center in comparison with other objects



Abandoned mine in Western Norway will get a second life - it is planned to place here the largest data center in Europe. This object will be called Lefdal Mine Datacenter , and construction is already underway - this is not one of the conceptual projects that are rarely realized. The data center will start operating in August 2016, in the city of Mol, which is located on the very edge of the fjord.



Interestingly, this data center will have 6 levels, which will house 75 underground machine rooms. The mine in which the data center is being created is located between the Norwegian ports of Mole and Nordfjordeid, the planned area of ​​the facility is more than 120 thousand square meters , the total capacity of the data center is 200 MW . The equipment is planned to be placed in containers that are developed by Rittal. In addition to containers, this company will also supply racks, power systems, cooling systems.

Where is it all located?

The first, that is, the lower level of the mine, will be fully occupied. All levels are connected by a spiral road 1300 meters long. The width of the road is 14 meters, and the height of the tunnel is 8.5 meters, which is enough for any kind of work.

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Each level is connected to the spiral road tunnels. The levels are represented by so-called galleries, whose length is 100 meters, and height - 11-18 meters. In total, there are 75 such galleries in the mine, in which, according to the plan, client racks, servers and other equipment will be placed in them. As already mentioned, such equipment will be placed in containers. Each gallery is wide enough so that the containers can be placed on both sides. The middle of the gallery will remain free and be used for operational purposes - delivery of new equipment, relocation of employees, etc.



Interestingly, containers with equipment, in fact, are autonomous modules. In order to add a module container, you need to connect it to the communications system, cooling and power supply. All this is done fairly quickly, compared with the connection of conventional racks in DC. The delivery and connection of the container after the order is about six weeks (information provided by Rittal).







In this case, the three levels of the mine-DC will be set aside for the placement of the usual mounting racks. The fact is that many customers of the company want to work with standard schemes, so the company went to meet.



The working water supply system remained in the mine, which in this case will be used to cool the equipment - water is taken from the nearest fjord, where it is always cool. There are no problems with communications and energy in the region: fast optical fiber networks are located in the city of Mol, there are sources of energy and, as already mentioned, water. Plus, there are two airports nearby, which solves the problem of transporting equipment from Germany (here are the warehouses of the supplier of DC, the company Rittal).

Saving resources and minimal environmental impact

Since Lefdal Mine Datacenter is located below sea level, the delivery of water from a nearby fjord does not require the use of expensive equipment, pumps and special pipelines. Thus, PUE is 1.08-1.1 for a 5 kW rack.







According to the company, the Norwegian DC is one of the most energy-efficient facilities in Europe.



Energy in the data center comes from local hydroelectric and wind power stations. Within a radius of 50 kilometers from the DC, there are four hydroelectric power stations at once, with a total capacity of 300 MW. Since the level of energy prices is one of the lowest in Europe, the costs for the data center are not too high.



The first phase of construction involves the creation of a facility with a capacity of 30 MW, with a final capacity of 200 MW. The power of the Facebook data center located in Northern Sweden is 120 MW, and the power of the Danish Apple data center (just under construction) will be 100-144 MW. Thus, Lefdal Mine Datacenter is the most productive (and large) DC in Europe. Another record is energy efficiency.