Leftdal Mine Datacenter is a large-scale data centre in a deep Norwegian mine

The data centre industry is experiencing massive growth, resulting from an explosion in the volume of internet traffic, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, robots, and high performance computing. The power consumption of data centres amounts to hundreds of billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Over 75 per cent of the power used to run data centres is derived from fossil fuels, accounting for up to 3 per cent of total CO₂ emissions worldwide.

In addition to their carbon footprint, large data centres can take up substantial amounts of physical space in areas with good infrastructure and connectivity.

Lefdal Mine Datacenter is a Tier III data centre. It runs on renewable hydroelectric power, with zero CO₂ emissions. Access to nearby seawater provides cooling, giving the centre a zero Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) rating and a low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.15 for a 5 KW rack. All heated water is reused.

The location of Lefdal Mine Datacenter, in a safeguarded mountain hall facility on the western coast of Norway, makes it exceptionally secure. The mine has an existing 120 000 m² of white space in underground chambers. Further expansion will have a low construction cost and a small environmental footprint due to the centre’s underground location.

Lefdal Mine Datacenter makes use of its unique access to low-cost green energy, high connectivity, high security and stable infrastructure to create value for its clients.

The large space and logistics allow for a variety of scalable, flexible, cost-effective solutions. The centre can accommodate containers of all shapes and sizes, and single location/dual site options.

The water-based cooling system supports high density computing up to 50 KW/rack. Power density, temperature, humidity, operational equipment, tier level and related services can all be customised.

The global data centre construction market is expected to grow from around USD 20 billion in 2018 to some USD 30 billion by 2023.

Norway is ranked as one of the most power-secure countries in the world, with a stable government, excellent connectivity and widespread access to renewable hydroelectric power. Moreover, heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Facebook and Apple are increasingly investing in data centre capacity in the Nordic countries.

Lefdal Mine Datacenter offers one of the lowest total cost of operations (TCO) in Europe, with a savings of up to 50 per cent over data centres in other parts of the world. Its clients include IBM and iNNOVO Cloud.