The largest and most energy efficient data centre in the region was opened recently in Estonia. The building that cost nearly €40m is the first of the three buildings to be built in the same area, all of which will contribute to the development of the Baltic e-commerce and digital societies. To the ordinary citizen, this means a smaller ecological footprint of data, and even better access to e-services. In addition, the opening of the building complex will multiply the data hosting export potential of the region.
“Data centres are the physical foundation of our current and future digital society, without which our way of life and business activities would be unthinkable. Greenergy’s top-tier and high energy efficiency data centre will increase the competitiveness of the Estonian economy and will create the necessary infrastructure for the digital transformation”, says the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, Andres Sutt, after participating in the opening. According to him, up until now, there was no such high-level digital infrastructure in Estonia, and the new data centre will remarkably increase the competitiveness of the companies of this area. It will also create favourable conditions for foreign companies to offer their services on the Estonian or Baltic market.
Founding the Greenergy Data Centres took more than five years to get from its inception to opening, and experts from six countries participated in the process. “The complex opened today conforms to all of the highest international security standards and aims at 25% higher energy efficiency than the market’s average,” says Kert Evert, the person behind the idea of creating the data centre. “Technologically speaking, we are at the absolute top of the world.” The first building spans 14,500 square metres. The total planned capacity of the complex is 31.5MW – in other words, the centre’s electrical connections could cover the energy needs of a smaller town.
As the data centre must be prepared for the unexpected and always function, every important support system of the complex is duplicated. In some places, back-up systems have their own back-up systems. For example, there will be as many as eight fibre optic connection cables entering the territory, and they will reach the building from four different sides.
Security fences, roadblocks, rotating cameras with motion, and heat sensors take care of the data centre’s security, and the entire complex is covered by a 360-camera surveillance system. Only those who are authorised will have access to the data centre, which will be, among other things, ensured by a biometric identification.
The Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund provided funding for building the facility.
