Green data centers to use geothermal in Pomerance, Italy
Lardarello geothermal power plant by Enel, Tuscany/ Italy
Alexander Richter
3 Oct 2021
Utilising geothermal energy from nearby Lardarello, Italian company Geoveda is working on setting up green data centers in Pomarance, Tuscany in Italy.
Italian Geoveda Srl, fully owned by Ulixes SGR Fund is working on the establishment of green data centers in the geothermal province of Pisa in Tuscany, Italy, as reported locally by Siena Post. The company was founded earlier this year based on an initiative born in Milan and Fondi, at the behest of the Banca Popolare di Fondi and the incubator Supernova SpA, a fund active in the financing of innovative initiatives in the field of technology and environmental impact, in line with the EU 2030 objectives and, now, also with the PNRR.
Geoveda is an innovative start-up, with fully paid-up share capital of EUR 1 million, and aims to design and build Green DataCenters, i.e. closed spaces cooled and powered entirely with renewable energy – in this case the geothermal energy of Larderello -, and rent or resell these spaces to IT operators to host data servers and applications.
The first initiative will see the construction on the land in the Municipality of Pomarance (PI), of a first Green DataCenter unique in the world, which will host up to 72 racks / about 3000 data servers, completely with “CO2 = zero” impact.
Geoveda’s Green DataCenter will directly exploit geothermal energy both for cooling the server rooms and for powering the servers, leveraging an area with practically no seismic risk.
The technology of the Geoveda project is based on three pillars:
- the electricity that will be used within the DataCenter to power the servers and primary and backup equipment will come from renewable sources (geothermal);
- thanks to the HIVEC prototype developed with GES Spa, it will be possible to cool large closed spaces using high enthalpy geothermal, guaranteeing a “PUE <1.1”;
- a pre-existing fiber ring, born from a long-term local vision, will ensure a stable and resilient connection, guaranteeing a connection up to 100GB.
The PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) is the main indicator of the environmental efficiency of DataCenters, unanimously recognized as the main benchmark by all operators in the sector. The value “= 1” means maximum energy efficiency.
In 2020, the average annual energy usage effectiveness ratio within the largest DataCenters was 1.59. Geoveda expects to drop below 1.1.
The project, worth approximately EUR 5 million in Phase 1 (further 2 expansion phases are planned), will be entirely financed by the MPS Group and in particular by MPS Leasing with a mixed instrument of real estate and instrumental leasing for eight and five years.
Source: Siena Post
