Oliver Schiebel

Mainova WebHouse is a data centre provider which mainly focuses on the Frankfurt area, in Germany. It is one of the ten largest in Germany, with the intention to become more sustainable. It does this by tailoring data centres to the Frankfurt market and developing a toolbox of sustainability measures. The company is willing to indulge in sustainability initiatives and believes in giving back to the community.

Mainova WebHouse CEO Oliver Schiebel’s responsibility is to lead his team, to set out strategies and execute against the global strategy of Mainova WebHouse, which is becoming the most sustainable data centre provider in Frankfurt.

“It's a growing industry, it's also something friends and family can relate to. Everybody uses cell phones and uses video streaming,” Oliver says. “Everybody uses the services that are provided by the digital infrastructure and provided by the digital economy.” 

Meanwhile, Juan Bono is the Construction Director for Mainova WebHouse, where he’s responsible for delivering all of the company’s data centre developments safely, on time, to budget and to the right specifications and quality.

Here, they tell us about data centre waste heat reutilisation and how it is making Frankfurt more sustainable. 

Mainova WebHouse targets LEED Gold with sustainability measures

Mainova WebHouse’s first campus consists of two buildings, the first building has a capacity of 20 megawatts and the second 10 megawatts. They were originally designed as a co-location setup, but that changed with a tenant being one of the hyperscalers. Mainova Webhouse was able to accommodate the design requirements and finish the build successfully. Both buildings have four floors, maximising the footprint within the plots by building as high as possible. Those particular buildings have a raised access floor as opposed to a standard concrete floor.

“We've been able to also build a basement on the first building, in order to house all of the fuel tanks that would fuel our emergency systems in order to free up part of the external areas,” Juan explains. 

In terms of highlights, Mainova WebHouse is targeting PUE of 1.2 on both buildings, using dry coolers and chillers on the roofs and maximising that space. It’s a compact site and design, which has got power strings that deliver directly into the data halls. 

“We also have a green wall facade in all of our buildings, photovoltaic panels on the south facing facades, as we are going for our LEED Gold certification,” Juan adds. 

This is a part of the sustainability agenda and edge that Mainova WebHouse wants to have as a business, it’s one of its USPs, ensuring that all of the data centre buildings are built to a LEED Gold standard.

“We are using generators which are able to work on synthetic fuels, in order to reduce the emissions from those generators to up to half of the normal emissions,” Juan continues.

In physically constrained areas like Frankfurt, it is very useful to be able to maximise power capacity associated with the building permit processes.

A leader in the data centre market

Over the next year, Mainova WebHouse will complete its first campus, start its second and potentially the third. 

“We will be extremely busy in ensuring that we've successfully handed over to our customers and managed those relationships,” says Juan. 

Juan will have a new daughter come into the world in September. Her generation will grow up being warmed by the reutilised heat from the Mainova WebHouse data centre and its many campuses. The underdog market entry Mainova WebHouse took, in engaging with its local supply chain, taking good care of its employees and building trusted partnerships, has paid off.

“We started a bit as an underdog,” says Oliver. “Now, we are now developing multiple data centre sites and really becoming a significant player for the Frankfurt market with the focus on that region.” 

Mainova WebHouse may be an underdog in the data centre world, but in Frankfurt and across the FLAP market, it is a leader. 

Read the full report HERE

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