NorthC, Legrand upgrade Münchenstein (Basel) data centre

Author: Joe Peck

NorthC Data Centers, a Dutch provider of sustainable data centre and colocation services, has partnered with Legrand, a French multinational manufacturer of electrical and digital building infrastructure products, to upgrade its Münchenstein (Basel) site, introducing higher-density infrastructure to support AI, hybrid-cloud, and high-performance computing workloads.

The project was completed within a six-month window to meet rising regional demand for GPU-driven environments.

NorthC operates regional facilities across Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany. The company sought to replace low-density systems and traditional air-cooling at the Münchenstein site to accommodate higher power and thermal loads associated with modern AI deployments.

Legrand, through USystems, supplied rear-door heat exchangers for rack-level cooling. These units are mounted to the rear of server racks, absorbing heat from server exhaust and transferring it through a heat exchanger before returning cooled air to the data hall.

The closed-loop design supports higher rack densities while improving energy performance.

The cooling equipment was installed while the data centre remained live, a process described by Wolfgang Voigt, Münchenstein Data Center Site Manager at NorthC, as “like open-heart surgery.”

Focus on efficiency and future expansion

NorthC reports that energy consumption at the site has fallen by about 80% following the cooling upgrade and broader infrastructure improvements.

The facility now supports GPU-based clusters, hybrid-cloud environments, and high-density workloads, while maintaining compliance with Swiss data protection requirements.

Wolfgang says, “Adopting the energy-efficient RDHx technology has been a game-changer for us. The fact that it enables high-density computing while reducing energy consumption makes it a compelling choice to meet AI and HPC requirements.”

The upgraded design also accommodates future development, including additional rack capacity or a shift towards liquid or direct-to-chip cooling.

NorthC says it continues to pursue its long-term sustainability goals through efficiency measures and ongoing optimisation of existing sites.

Colin Rowlands, European Technical Support at USystems, notes, “Installing the basic infrastructure for our cooling solutions in a data centre, whether in the entire data centre or just part of it, makes upgrading easy.

“The joint solution, which we are very proud of, provides NorthC with future-proof and flexible infrastructure.”

For more from NorthC, click here.