Wood, HVO and a touch of Swedish romanticism: How to make data centers sustainable

Red wooden houses, idyllic coastal towns, secluded lakes, cosiness. Anyone who thinks of Sweden has these images in their head. So it fits into the picture that Sweden is home to data centers that are among the most sustainable in the world. Built from wood, of course. With mtu gensets as a backup for the power supply - sustainably powered by HVO.

"We want to lead the way in terms of sustainability," says Mikael Svanfeldt. The 40-year-old is CTO of EcoDataCenter and the brain behind the unique design of the Swedish company's three existing data centers. A fourth is currently being built. The guiding principle for all data centers is the circular economy. This starts with the raw material from which the buildings are constructed: Wood. "Wood is a renewable raw material and therefore more sustainable than steel or concrete, and it also stores CO2 instead of releasing it into the air," explains Svanfeldt. All EcoDataCenter data centers obtain 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, mainly from hydropower and wind power, which are available in abundance in Sweden. And the waste heat generated by the servers is reused in the nearby biofuel production plant.
  

With these measures, Mikael Svanfeldt and his team have managed to reduce the PUE value of the data centers to  1.15, withput any compromize to the quality of services delivered.   This value puts the total energy consumption of a data center in relation to the energy used purely for the IT equipment. "We are proud of the 1.15, because that puts us at the lowest limit," says Svanfeldt.  

"The combustion engine is the most sustainable solution"

He also wanted to reorganize the emergency power supply - for which gensets with diesel engines had traditionally been the most reliable and therefore best solution. For many years, 32 mtu gensets based on mtu Series 4000 engines have ensured that the data center's customers' data is protected even during power outages in the public grid. Together with his team, Mikael Svanfeldt investigated new solutions, only to return to combustion engines and order 16 more gensets for further expansion.

However, the huge fuel tanks next to the emergency power generators are not filled with fossil diesel, but with HVO. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, or HVO for short, is a sustainable fuel that reduces the CO2 emissions of combustion engines by up to 95 percent. This is because it only releases CO2 that the plants used to produce the fuel have removed from the atmosphere during their growth

EcoDataCenter is not only relying on HVO for its fourth campus in Borlänge, which is currently under development, but also for the three existing ones. "That's one of the great advantages of HVO," says Svanfeldt. "We didn't have to invest in new equipment and use up new resources. With HVO, we use our existing equipment and are still much more sustainable than before."

Technical analyses and test runs provided security

This is because HVO is a drop-in fuel that can be used in all modern mtu diesel engines without having to modify them. The performance does not change and the service intervals remain the same - even in extreme cold and temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees in Sweden. "We had our doubts at the beginning," admits Mikael Svanfeldt. "However, our colleagues at Rolls-Royce, their local partner BOS Power and the HVO manufacturer Neste gave us perfect advice and, based on technical analyses and documented test runs, but also in numerous discussions on issues such as availability, prices and regulations, gave us the certainty that we can fully rely on HVO," he reports and adds: "And our experience so far shows that they are right."

With HVO, EcoDataCenter prevents the emission of 55.000 tons of CO2e in 2023, compared to 2023. But what are the benefits of so much sustainability? Does it mean customers pay more for server capacity? "No, certainly not," Mikael Svanfeld answers the question with a laugh. But his customers are satisfied and that is the most important thing. And he is certain that EcoDataCenter's efforts to achieve greater sustainability will not only pay off in the long term. "Our customers need sustainable supply chains, and we can offer them this sustainability," he explains.  

Sustainability, which he also relies on in his private life. "Even if the impact is much lower there, of course." His car does not run on HVO, but is electric. But he lives in a wooden house.