2016 Forum – Arctic Data Centers and Heat Reuse: How the University of Tromso Employs Liquid-cooled IT and Re-uses the Waste Heat

08 March, 2016 | Presentation

Roy Dragseth, University of Tromso

This session examines how UiT - The Arctic University of Norway is using the cold climate to its advantage by designing its new data center for heat re-use. Norway already has one of the most environmentally friendly power infrastructures in the world, where 99% of the nation’s electricity comes from hydropower plants. Although a very high Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) is already generated, UiT is planning to make further strides into green computing by designing its new 1 MW supercomputer to use liquid cooling. The new data center will host the supercomputer in the middle of the campus, providing huge opportunities to use the excess heat to warm the surrounding buildings. The goal is to obtain an ERF more than 0.8.