‘Green computing’ seeks to tap Norwegian offshore winds as power source

Earth Wind & Power (EWP), a startup that counts a former Norwegian government minister among its team, has said that it will offtake “excess and pre-grid” output from up to 400 MW of offshore wind power in Northern Europe to operate its modular data centre units, which will then offer distributed high-performance computing (HPC) services to clients.

No details were given concerning the source of the offshore wind in a statement announcing the offtake plan. EWP is billing the marriage of its 2.4 MW containers with renewable output as a green computing solution that addresses soaring demand for data centre services while simultaneously giving plant operators a commercial outlet for excess power at times of low demand for grid supplies. WP’s founding team includes Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde, formerly Norway’s security minister and deputy energy minister, and board member Lars Helge Helvig, the founder of Norwegian wind group Norsk Vind Energi.

Potential sustainability impact

Tybring-Gjedde said the offshore wind offtake would mark a step forward for the start-up’s plans to secure “significant renewable energy capacity around the world”. Data centres are set to be one of the world’s biggest consumers of power as demand for cloud computing services soars. EWP cites figures that put current global consumption by data centres at 1% with the potential to reach 20% as soon as 2025. Massive data crunchers such as Google and Amazon Web Services have been among the most active in signing deals for wind and solar output, both in an effort to secure supplies and meet corporate decarbonization targets.