Making supercomputers carbon neutral – CSC’s data center will be powered with hydroelectricity supplied by Vattenfall

Making supercomputers carbon neutral – CSC’s data center will be powered with hydroelectricity supplied by Vattenfall

Vattenfall and CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd have concluded an agreement on the supply of guarantee of origin-certified renewable energy. The renewable electricity supplied to CSC by Vattenfall is in the form of hydropower.

The ecological energy supplied under the agreement will be needed to power the supercomputer environments of CSC’s data center in Kajaani, Finland.

All supercomputer environments, both old and new, consume large amounts of electricity but their carbon footprint partially depends on the location of the data centers. The renewable energy supplied by Vattenfall and the availability of warm-water cooling are the key advantages of CSC’s data center in Kajaani, Finland. The waste heat generated by warm-water cooling can be used in the municipal district heating network. This also helps to reduce costs.

LUMI – making Finland and Europe more competitive

The LUMI supercomputer will be the first system in Kajaani that will be connected to hydroelectricity. LUMI is one of the three pre-exascale supercomputers built as part of the pan-European EuroHPC initiative and it will be located in CSC’s data center in Kajaani.

When LUMI becomes operational next year, it will be one of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
During its operating period, between 2021 and 2026, LUMI will serve both Finnish and European research and innovation activities, strengthening the competitiveness of Europe and increasing its scientific potential.

Supercomputers are helping to fight the coronavirus

The huge computing capacity of supercomputers is needed in top research in many fields of science, such as medicine, climate research and artificial intelligence. Supercomputers have helped scientists to achieve significant progress in the fight against the current coronavirus pandemic: for example, pharmaceutical research requiring extremely heavy computing has made unprecedented strides with the help of supercomputers.

Vattenfall and CSC share the same value base. Vattenfall is working to make fossil-free life a reality within one generation. All energy generated by Vattenfall is certified under the Environmental Product Declaration and the company is the only EPD-certified electricity producer in the Nordic region. All information on direct and life-cycle emissions contained in the EPD can be used in such documents as corporate responsibility reports. All services developed and provided by CSC are geared towards meeting Finland’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2035 and promoting the European Green Deal.

The companies in brief:

CSC
CSC – IT Center for Science is a Finnish center of expertise in information technology owned by the Finnish state and higher education institutions. We provide internationally high-quality ICT expert services for higher education institutions, research institutes, culture, public administration and enterprises to help them thrive and benefit society at large. www.csc.fi
LUMI supercomputer: www.lumi-supercomputer.eu
Images and videos for the media: www.lumi-supercomputer.eu/media

Vattenfall
Vattenfall is a leading European energy company, which for more than 100 years has electrified industries, supplied energy to people’s homes and modernised our way of living through innovation and cooperation. We now want to make fossil-free living possible within one generation. That's why we are driving the transition to a sustainable energy system through initiatives in renewable production and climate smart energy solutions for our customers. We employ approximately 20,000 people and have operations in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark and Finland. Vattenfall is owned by the Swedish state. For more information: group.vattenfall.com