Categories: Technology

Because of ‘power guzzler AI’: Swiss data center boss wants to move capacity abroad

According to the head of the Swiss high-performance computing center, computing capacities should be moved abroad.

Switzerland should concentrate local resources on innovative pilot projects, said Thomas Schulthess, head of the National High Performance Computing Center (CSCS), in an interview with the “SonntagsZeitung”.

“We will never operate data centers in Switzerland with a capacity of several 100 megawatts like the leading technology companies such as Microsoft or Google.”

According to Schulthess, Northern Europe is ideal for outsourcing local computing capacity:

“Finland, Norway and Sweden have large hydropower reserves far away from the cities that are already installed and used to supply electricity to mines or paper mills. Switzerland should help make the electricity infrastructure in Northern Europe more usable for scientific computing.”

A consortium called ‘Lumi’ (Large Unified Modern Infrastructure) has already been set up with Finland, which includes ten countries, Schulthess said. Under his leadership, a data center was built in a former Finnish paper factory.

The demand for electricity is increasing

«The location is perfect and it is cost-effective. The factory hall and the associated infrastructure for electricity production and cooling were already in place,” said the CSCS boss.

“There should be more of these types of projects. But since Switzerland withdrew from the framework agreement negotiations with the EU, the EU-controlled umbrella organization Lumi has been harassing us and we can no longer fully participate.”

Such an expansion of Swiss computing capacity is necessary because the demand for electricity is increasing, says Schulthess:

“It’s not just AI and powerful computers that require large amounts of electricity, but also mobility, which is increasingly expected to switch from combustion engines to electric motors. For us as a society, this means: we have to think about how we can solve the problems with the increasing demand for electricity.”

(sda)

Source: Watson

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