Assignment
The demand for physical premises in which to house servers and other equipment is increasingly sharply in Gothenburg. Operators’ customers have a pressing need to be able to use strategic nodes in the form of datacenters in order to develop robust data communication and gain access to Göteborg Energi’s fibre infrastructure. With this in mind, Göteborg Energi constructed a modular datacenter during the spring, which was completed in the summer of 2018. Göteborg Energi is an independent, neutral city fibre network which works towards a sustainable Gothenburg.
The strategic choice of modular construction allows the datacenter to be seamlessly extended in line with customers’ increasing requirements and demand for output. The datacenter infrastructure’s flexibility in terms of connectivity, power and cooling supply enables it to dock with additional server centre modules. This ensures it is ready, whether the module is intended for traditional servers or OCP technology. Renewable energy is used without exception, and the heat generated can be recycled in Göteborg Energi’s district heating network. A fully deployed datacenter can generate around four gigawatt hours of thermal energy, which is sufficient to heat 200 houses.
“For a little over 20 years, I’ve been lucky enough to design and deliver datacenters to both large and mid-sized customers. What all these projects have in common is that following a long process of identifying needs, there is always a rush to get the new datacenter up and running. By prefabricating a datacenter in a controlled, efficient factory environment, with groundwork and other infrastructural work taking place on site, a modular project can become operational more quickly than its equivalent build on site,” says Pär Åberg, Chief Sales Officer at Swedish Modules.
Modular and on-site construction differ in terms of the technique used and the substantially shorter construction period, as opposed to their function or requirements. The same regulations covering on-site projects apply to modular construction.
This flexibility also enables investment to be made in line with the increase in demand, as more customers move into the datacenter. In addition, the time spent on site is kept to a minimum during expansion, which means increased security for existing customers based in the facility.
“We are extremely proud to have been part of the overall project involving Göteborg Energi’s innovative and modern datacenter. Göteborg Energi’s success in combining excellent availability for IT operation with a green, sustainable facility dovetails perfectly with our core values to make a difference for society as well as individuals. IT is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, and collaboration is crucial to ensure datacenters are to be an asset for the environment, rather than a burden. The project with Göteborg Energi is an excellent example of this type of value-creating collaboration,” he adds.
Security and logistics top priority
When the modules are assembled on site, safety is naturally the highest priority, along with logistics, to ensure that transport to and from the site takes place unimpeded. We are extremely pleased that, thanks to good planning and collaboration, transport to and from the site took place without any delays. Due to the size of the modules, which in this case spanned 5.5 metres in width and 16 metres in length, transportation took place during the night in order not to affect the Gothenburg traffic.
