Sustainable data centers predominate in Eemshaven

The Eemshaven forms together with Delfzijl Groningen Seaports. A third of the Dutch electricity is produced in this port area. Furthermore, the area is an ideal hub for large data centers. During the IT Infrastructure event Cas König, director of Groningen Seaports, will indicate, among other things, that data centers at this location could even do without diesel generators.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

Under the title 'Eemshaven large-scale data and fiber optic hub with a strong focus on renewable energy', König wants to present the highlight various advantages of the EemshavenInternet giant Google and American investor QTS, among others, have set up data centers in this area.

According to König, one of the advantages of Eemshaven is the presence of a very reliable power supply: “We have gas-fired power stations here, a biomass and coal-fired power station, we benefit from onshore and offshore wind farms and there are solar parks. In addition, we also have a cable to Norway and, recently, to Denmark for the supply of hydropower and wind energy respectively,” says König. “The cable to Denmark has been combined with fibre optics on our initiative, which not only costs less money, it is our medium-term vision to make Eemshaven a pivot point for data traffic.”

No generators needed

According to the director of Groningen Seaports, in theory data centers can do away with their backup options, mostly diesel generators, thanks to the many supply options for electricity and the high degree of reliability of the Dutch energy grid. This results in significant cost savings. In addition, a temporary construction freeze has been announced for new data centers in Haarlemmermeer and Amsterdam. During his lecture, König will further explain this aspect.

In addition to a broad energy supply with various alternatives, Eemshaven also produces and imports a lot of sustainable energy. “Google’s data center already runs entirely on regional wind and solar energy,” says König. “In addition, more and more data centers have an ever-increasing energy requirement, so the green energy is very welcome.” Incidentally, there are plans to gradually switch the RWE power station, the largest coal-fired power station in the Netherlands, to biomass.

The main lines

From the perspective of Groningen Seaports, König and his colleagues set out the major planning lines. “We have a kind of management function,” he says. For example, the port authority advises on the most important boundary conditions, such as terminal stations for the power connection and fiber optic connections with the large internet hub AMS-IX in Amsterdam. 

There is also a new task: reusing residual heat. According to König, Groningen Seaports is fully investigating the possibilities of having companies exchange residual heat with each other. This ambition also falls under the sustainability steps that the Groningen port authority wants to take and fits in perfectly with the climate plans that the government has drawn up. "We are far from finished," says König.

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