Mining For Data: The Groundbreaking Concept of a Data Centre Underground

Construction has begun on a 5W data centre located in an active mine in the Italian Alps. Industry experts weigh in on the facility- and the promise of underground data centres.

A unique data centre in the Italian Alps will soon share space with dolomite extraction and quarries storing apples, wine and cheeses. Construction began this month at the San Romedio mine in Torento, Italy on Intacture, a 5MW facility that will host approximately 1,000 racks. Intacture is set to support colocation services starting in 2026.

The result of public-private collaboration between the University of Trento and the technology company Trentino Data Mine, the data centre will cost about 50 million euros- is partly funded by the country’s recovery and resilience plan (NRRP).

But Howard said these projects are still relatively rare because of the types of infrastructure they need to have in place, such as roads, electricity, water and a facility management function.

But when those conditions are met, underground facilities can have major advantages over their above-ground counterparts, according to Howard. ”A combination of contact, year-round low ambient temperature resulting in free cooling and bring naturally sheltered from severe weather and natural disaster scenarios” gives these underground data centres the potential to be cost and energy-efficient

The Intacture data center is designed for a maximum power of 5MW and will host a total of approximately 1,000 racks. “That won’t support large-scale deployments we might see from hyperscalers,” Omdia’s Howard said. But the project, he predicts, should have success as a resource for local customers.