Strong start for the Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers launch

Yesterday, the Danish Data Center Industry, together with four strong partners, unveiled the recently founded Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers. The aim of the Hub is to build a European innovation powerhouse for the data center industry, to develop the climate-neutral data center and contribute to achieving the 2030 targets for CO2 emissions.

Danish Version

More than 100 participants joined the launch event in Port House in Fredericia, to celebrate the opening with founding partners Danfoss, Google, Microsoft and Schneider Electric.

"We would like to see the first concrete projects on the ground within 18 months – we need to hire a CEO first before we really get started. And then we want to make sure that the work is pan-European and scalable, because it is a global challenge, that we need to solve together," said Jens Peter Clausen, Vice President, Advanced Technology Innovation, at Google.

The co-founder from Danfoss also set the bar high for the Hub.

"With this hub, we will be able to simulate some things here that we cannot do without a collaboration. And we expect a concrete output a year from now – that's my ambition," said Jürgen Fischer, President of Danfoss Climate Solutions.

Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, also set great expectations for the initiative in his opening remarks:

"In today's world, we cannot live without data centers – they make our everyday life work with a wide range of services, but also use large amounts of energy. Increasing data consumption also results in greater energy consumption, but by developing and optimizing, we can drastically reduce the industry's climate footprint, and here Denmark has taken the lead," praised the minister.

"The Net Zero project is based on strong experience and know-how from the Danish data center industry. I congratulate the partners on the new initiative, and I look forward to following the work and the impact it will have," concluded Dan Jørgensen.

The consortium behind the new hub will now get to work on building up the organization and hit the ground running with the first projects.  

“The transformation of the energy sector and the demand for more data are the two major trends which are driving these developments.  We don't like it when we experience connectivity issues and power outages amidst cooking our Christmas dinner. But there is a golden opportunity for data centers from an energy supply perspective," pointed out Mic Seremet, Head of Global Platforms at Schneider Electric

"Therefore, data centers are an absolutely fantastic asset. But we can only see the possibilities if we all collaborate across the board – and we already have good experience with a similar setup within the Open Compute Foundation."

Neither party hides the fact that it will be a difficult task to achieve the 2030 goals, but there is also great optimism.

I'm standing here today because I do believe in it. It will be hard, but it can be done," was the assessment from Mikael Mikkelsen, Datacenter Director at Microsoft.

"We are building three data centers in Zealand, and I can see how difficult it actually is to make them sustainable. This applies, for example, in Taastrup, where it is very complicated to connect them to the district heating network and utilize the surplus heat."

Although it will be a huge challenge to reach the goal of 2030, the parties have already overcome the first hurdle – the realization that it is necessary to pool our resources in a collaboration.

"To be completely honest, I'm only here because we need help. We would like to invite and encourage a cross-border collaboration on how we solve the climate challenge for our data centers," said Jens Peter Clausen from Google.

"I'm Danish, but I live in the States, so I see how far you really are ahead in this country. And I would like to encourage everyone to think about how you can help, because we have a lot that we want to do in this innovation center. It is not without the risk, that we may not reach the (2030) goal. But it is incredible what you can do if you want to."

Director Henrik Hansen from Datacenter Industrien, who will run the secretariat for the new center, also called on all the good forces to get involved in the Hub:

"It is important to emphasize that this is not a closed club. The Net Zero Innovation Hub is open to all interested parties – also as partners in the specific projects, when the work becomes more concrete," said Henrik Hansen.

"The whole idea behind the new hub is to share information and think of new ways that challenge the traditions in the industry."