“WINDCORES”-PROJECT OF WESTFALENWIND IT GMBH AND SICP RECEIVED MULTIPLE AWARDS

The Ger­man Data Centre Prize gives visi­bi­lity to for­ward-loo­king and visio­nary tech­no­lo­gies that increase the energy effi­ci­ency of data cen­tres. The DRZP is con­side­red the most pres­ti­gious award in the indus­try. West­fa­len­WIND IT Mana­ging Direc­tor Dr Fiete Dub­berke was cor­re­spon­din­gly deligh­ted when he held the cove­ted tro­phy in his hands at the award cerem­ony. “The fact that we were nomi­na­ted twice in our first par­ti­ci­pa­tion in the DRZP and won a vic­tory and a second place at the same time is alre­ady over­whel­ming — thanks to all supporters!”.

The Ger­man Data Centre Prize was awarded in five cate­go­ries this year. In the cate­gory “Ideas and Rese­arch around the Data Centre”, the new con­cept “Wind­CORES++” for cloud hos­ting was the winner.

The idea behind “Wind­CORES” is as simple as it is effi­ci­ent: to build elec­tri­city-inten­sive data cen­tres where the elec­tri­city is pro­du­ced in a cli­mate-fri­endly way — con­se­quently also in wind energy plants. “It is won­derful to see when inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for exis­ting and future fields of appli­ca­tion grow out of rese­arch ideas,” says Dr Scho­ma­ker from the SICP. The pilot that won second place has alre­ady been run­ning suc­cessfully for over a year in a wind tur­bine near Lich­tenau in the Pader­born district.

For a fur­ther appli­ca­tion, West­fa­len­WIND IT is now working tog­e­ther with the inter­na­tio­nally active equip­ment sup­plier Rit­tal: Maxi­mi­sing the foot­print for ser­vers in wind tur­bine towers is the goal. The new con­cept shows how up to 50 racks can be instal­led in a sin­gle wind tur­bine. Sys­tem hou­ses and medium-sized cor­po­rate cus­to­mers can use this capa­city for their own IT systems.

The 16-mem­ber expert jury of the Ger­man Data Centre Award was par­ti­cu­larly impres­sed by the com­bi­na­tion of eco­no­mic effi­ci­ency and sus­taina­bi­lity in a sin­gle con­cept. This is because Wind­CORES uses over 90 per­cent wind power and avo­ids the con­sump­tion of addi­tio­nal resour­ces. By instal­ling them in wind tur­bi­nes, exis­ting buil­dings, infra­struc­tures and power grids are used.

The vision of the makers of West­fa­len­WIND IT is to bring sus­tainable energy pro­duc­tion and digi­ta­li­sa­tion into harm­ony — not only in East West­pha­lia, but in Ger­many and Europe. This path offers an inno­va­tive solu­tion for future-ori­en­ted fields of appli­ca­tion such as con­nec­ted dri­ving, Indus­try 4.0 or the Smart City.

The barely dis­cus­sed incre­asing energy demand of digi­ta­li­sa­tion is one of the major socie­tal chal­lenges. The elec­tri­city demand of the inter­net alre­ady accounts for 7 % of glo­bal elec­tri­city con­sump­tion. In data cen­tres, energy accounts for an average of 40 % of total ope­ra­ting costs. Due to the direct sup­ply of wind power, the elec­tri­city costs at Wind­CORES are signi­fi­cantly below the mar­ket average.

“On the way to more sus­taina­bi­lity and pro­fi­ta­bi­lity in the IT indus­try, Wind­CORES must become part of the solu­tion!”, wish West­fa­len­WIND IT co-foun­ders Dr. Fiete Dub­berke and Dr. Gun­nar Scho­ma­ker.

Four fire-resistant IT secu­rity cabi­nets are set up at the foot of the 13-metre-wide and 150-metre-high rein­forced con­crete tower of a wind tur­bine The data is pro­tec­ted in the IT safe cabi­nets against unaut­ho­ri­sed access and EMC inter­fe­rence (elec­tro­ma­gne­tic compatibility).

Media cont­act:

West­fa­len­WIND IT GmbH & Co. KG

Daniel Saage /​Sonya Harrison
Cor­po­rate Communications
Vatt­mann­straße 6, 33100 PB
0 52 51 — 68 25 814
0177 — 84 85 86 8

About WESTFALENWIND IT GMBH & CO. KG

West­fa­len­WIND IT GmbH & CO. KG belongs to the Pader­born-based West­fa­len­WIND Group. Since its foun­da­tion in 2009, it has ope­ra­ted a total of 60 wind tur­bi­nes with a nomi­nal out­put of 140 MW. In terms of tech­ni­cal moni­to­ring and sup­port, West­fa­len­WIND is respon­si­ble for a total of 170 wind tur­bi­nes with an out­put of around 360 MW in the Pader­born dis­trict. During the deve­lo­p­ment of the pro­jects, great importance was atta­ched to citi­zen par­ti­ci­pa­tion from the very begin­ning. For exam­ple, a foun­da­tion and a coope­ra­tive society were set up on the company’s initia­tive. The West­fa­len­WIND Group includes its own elec­tri­city sales com­pany, which also offers Germany’s lowest elec­tri­city price. The Group par­ti­ci­pa­tes in various model pro­jects out of con­vic­tion in order to advance sec­tor cou­pling (e.g. power-to-heat pro­jects /​wind power for hea­ting buil­dings) more quickly. West­fa­len­WIND foun­ding mana­ging direc­tor Johan­nes Lack­mann is also the ori­gi­na­tor of ideas for WindCORES.

www​.west​fa​len​wind​.de /​www​.wind​cores​.de