Computers heat pool

News

Power generated by a data storage facility built by GIB-Services in Switzerland is to be used to heat a local public swimming pool.

Working with IBM, the Swiss IT company GIB-Services has created a new energy efficient 'green' data centre at a former military bunker outside Zurich.

Located in Uitikon, Switzerland, the data centre is expected to create 2,800MWh of heat per year when operating at full capacity - the same amount of energy needed to supply up to 80 houses with heating and warm water for one year.

In order to repurpose some of this previously wasted energy, the power generated by the data storage facility will be used to heat a public swimming pool in the town.

'Theoretically it is possible to reuse up to 90 per cent of the electric power required for the operation of the data centre as heat energy,' said Steve Sams, vice president of IBM Global Site and Facilities Services. Through reclaiming the heat, approximately 130 tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be saved.

The data centre was completed in the first quarter of 2008. The project to heat to the public swimming pool will be completed in the next few months.

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