Highly energy-efficient data centre in Vienna

Public nZEB buildings case study
Building type
Data Centre Public
Project type
New Construction
Country
Austria

 RZ@STAR22 – Data Centre in Vienna © Pfeffer & Partner GMBH

As part of the Ökokauf Wien Programme, the City of Vienna decided, in 2010, to unite the many small data centres spread across the city into one single bigger and highly energy-efficient building. The public authority launched, in April 2011, a tender for a larger Data Centre which would bundle all staff and resources into one single location.

How was the building procured?

A tender entitled “Construction of the Data Centre for the City of Vienna including turnkey installation of infrastructure in 1220 Vienna, Location STAR22; including operational Facility Management general contractor” was published in 2011.

The selection criteria included in the tender asked the bidders to prove experience with similar projects that included the same minimum technical requirements. The technical concept, which was allocated the 35% of the tender points, included energy efficiency requirements such as the use of outside air for cooling in winter or the reuse of computers’ heat for the heating of the building.

Moreover, the tender included a contract performance clause regarding the certification of the Data Centre by the eco Data Centre Star Audit Certification.

In total, the tender accounted for a budget of 16 million euro. Three bid offers were received and the tender was awarded eight months after its publication.

What are the key nZEB features?

The new data centre in Vienna in STAR22 includes some features of Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEB), such as:

  • Efficient cooling of servers by housing the ICT cabinets of the data centre and providing a targeted airflow
  • Storage of computers’ heat and reuse for the buildings heating system
  • Use of outdoor air for the cooling system

These innovations align with the Ökokauf Wien Programme as well as Vienna’s Climate Action Programme (KliP Wien).

Did the project have an impact on skills?

Although this tender did not specifically include criteria regarding nZEB official certificates or training programmes, social and environmental benefits were achieved with similar means: the public authority required for experience in the building of similar energy efficient facilities, and assured an optimal result by establishing a contract performance clause based on a certification, which would ensure the energy efficiency of the building.

Through this certification, the Data Centre received five stars (Star audit 3.0) from the Eco Association of the German Internet Industry (eco Verband deutscher Internetwirtschaft).

Keywords: Sustainable and Innovation Procurement, Nearly Zero-Energy Building (nZEB), Data Centre, Austria, ICT.

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