German streaming service Zattoo has partnered with WestfalenWIND to operate its data centre in a wind turbine.
The company streams over 80 million hours of TV content per month, with more than five million gigabytes of data exchanged between users and its data centre every day. Zattoo estimates it consumes around one million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
After an initial test phase, Zattoo’s content is now being distributed via the data centre, meaning the streamer is not only using green electricity from wind energy, but placing its data centre directly in the wind turbine, where the electricity is generated.
The streamer says it believes it is the first company in the world to operate in such a way.
“The idea of bringing computing capacity closer to clean energy generation and thereby tapping unused space is so simple and obvious and from our point of view a project that will hopefully catch on,” said Stefan Lietsch, chief technology officer at Zattoo. “We want to become a sustainable company and encourage others to join in.”
“With windCORES, the wind turbines are put to further sustainable use. In this way, we can reconcile the rising demand for energy due to increasing digitalisation with the energy transition,” added Fiete Dubberke, managing director IT at WestfalenWIND.
