Infomaniak data centre in Geneva integrates Trane heat pumps for large-scale heat recovery
EDITOR’ S CHOICE SETTING A NEW BENCHMARK
INFOMANIAK
Infomaniak data centre in Geneva integrates Trane heat pumps for large-scale heat recovery
Officially inaugurated in January 2025, the Infomaniak data centre in Geneva, Switzerland sets a new benchmark in sustainable digital infrastructure. Uniquely located in a residential neighbourhood, this underground facility— built beneath a 150-apartment eco-district— has no visual impact on the landscape. Powered entirely by locally sourced renewable energy, it recovers waste heat and recycles 100 % of the energy it consumes into usable thermal energy.
This project marks a key step in the regional energy transition, transforming a traditionally energyintensive facility into an active example of circular energy use.
Designed to accommodate around 10,000 servers at full capacity in the 1800 m2 basement area of a residential neighbourhood, the data centre operates with a highperformance waste heat recovery system enabled by Trane ® XStream™ RTWF heat pumps. This technology plays a crucial role in recovering and converting the low-temperature heat energy emitted by servers, inverters, ventilation, and other elements of the data centre infrastructure into a valuable resource for the nearby community. The use of heat pumps allows Infomaniak to utilise energy that would otherwise be wasted, enabling them to supply the recovered thermal energy to the city’ s district heating network, enough to heat around 6,000 Minergie-A homes in winter or provide daily five-minute showers for 20,000 people in summer.
Circular Energy in Practice. Turning Digital Power Consumption into Community Heating All the electricity consumed by servers, inverters, ventilation, and other components is entirely converted into low temperature heat, which is then boosted by Trane heat pumps and injected into the canton’ s district heating network, providing hot water for thousands of households year-round. At full capacity the data centre generates an estimated annual output of 1.7 MW or 14.9 GWh. By using energy that would otherwise be lost, the system helps avoid the combustion of 3600 tCO2eq of natural gas or 5500 tCO2eq of pellets per year. This also eliminates more than 200 heavy vehicle trips annually to transport the pellets, further reducing emissions and particulate pollution associated with vehicle fuel combustion.
This project serves as a practical, replicable model for sustainable energy practices within the data centre and technology sector- demonstrating the potential for information and communication( ICT) infrastructure to be seamlessly integrated with residential areas. Infomaniak has documented the full operation of this world-first innovation in open source, in collaboration with EPFL, IMD, and the University of Lausanne, as part of the E4S program on the website d4project. org
High-Performance Heat Recovery System Infomaniak’ s data centre cooling system operates without traditional chillers, relying instead on two innovative modes that eliminate the need for conventional mechanical cooling and reduce environmental impact.
In normal mode, the heat generated by the servers is captured and upgraded by heat pumps, then fed into the district heating network. The cold released during this process is used to cool the servers, creating a highly efficient, circular energy system.
In backup mode, if the heat pumps are temporarily inactive( for example, when the heating network
30 PECM Issue 76