Svante Horn discusses the benefits of decentralized data centers in Eskilstuna, Sweden, emphasizing their initial 15-megawatt facility and an additional 10 megawatts allocated.
The district heating grid, likened to the body's capillaries, is crucial for efficient heat distribution.
The data center could provide 22-23 megawatts, making it a base heat load for a 100,000-person city, reducing winter peak heating needs.
The project also includes integrating 20% of the data center with greenhouses to produce local food and create jobs.
This circular business model offers economic benefits, such as cheaper cooling. It also contributes to a carbon-negative data center platform, which benefits the city, the data center, and the environment.
This video is excerpted from the podcast Ep. #46 Svante Horn, CEO & Co-Founder of Scandinavian Data Centers | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast.
Action Items
- Explore the potential for the data center to provide latency-sensitive applications for smart city and EV-related services.
- Finalize the data center's location to be close to the main power and district heating grids.
- Determine the optimal load capacity for the data center to become the base heat load for the entire city.
- Identify and connect 20% of the data center's capacity to greenhouses to create entry-level jobs and increase the community's food self-reliance.
Outline
Decentralized Data Centers and Initial Facility Allocation
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the concept of decentralized data centers, questioning the inherent goodness of hyperscale and the potential benefits of colocation and edge computing.
- Svante Horn explains that their first facility was initially allocated 15 megawatts, with an additional 10 megawatts allocated in the southern part of the city.
- Svante Horn compares the district heating grid to the human body's capillaries, emphasizing the need for strategic locations near main grids for data centers.
- The district heating grid runs on 300 megawatts of heat during peak winter, highlighting the potential benefits for large hyperscalers in the city.
Economic Benefits and Strategic Partnerships
- Svante Horn mentions that their team includes leading experts in Sweden within power, district heating, and data centers, working closely with a 100,000-person city.
- Connecting to the data center has benefited the city economically, especially during its 7,860 hours of operation.
- If they can achieve a load capacity of 22-23 megawatts, the data center could become the base heat load for the entire city, providing hot showers year-round and shutting off the main power heating furnace earlier in the year.
- Svante Horn notes the challenge of unskilled immigration and the creation of entry-level jobs through their data center and greenhouse initiatives.
Greenhouse Integration and Community Benefits
- Svante Horn plans to connect 20% of their data centers to greenhouses, with 20% of the workload being traditional IT and 80% being HPC and AI workloads.
- Greenhouses make the community more self-reliant in food production and create entry-level jobs, which politicians find exciting.
- Joshua Feinberg highlights the benefits of having the heating source closer to where people live and the greenhouse near residential areas, which is ideal for latency-sensitive applications like smart cities and EVs.
- The capillaries model and edge-leaning approach benefit technology and telecommunication needs, especially with the rise of generative AI.
Circular Business Model and Political Benefits
- Svante Horn explains that their business model is circular, starting with the district heating grid's capacity to absorb heat as a primary consideration.
- This approach leads to conversations with politicians regarding land grants, building grants, and power company access, as well as exciting the district heating company about cheap heating.
- The business model is a win-win-win, with the city saving money on heating costs, the data center benefiting from cheaper cooling, and the platform becoming carbon-negative.
- The conversation concludes with the potential for significant cost savings and environmental benefits, making the data center a viable solution for various stakeholders.
Resources
Watch the full podcast Ep. #46 Svante Horn, CEO & Co-Founder of Scandinavian Data Centers | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast
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