By Chris Poole
In the sweltering heat of July 2022, NHS staff scrambled to find a hose tap. Modern hospitals run on data, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust is no different. But as temperatures reached unprecedented highs, the trust’s server rooms were on the brink of buckling.
Ageing, poorly positioned air conditioning units couldn’t cope with the heat. Staff planned to hose down the data centre’s cooling units, but they couldn’t find connectors and water supplies. The servers failed. Staff switched to pencils and notepads, bringing stress and chaos.
With data unavailable, appointments were delayed: one patient had to defer their organ transplant. The outage cost the trust £1.4 million, and it took six weeks to fully restore access.
The trust wasn’t the only one to face heat-related outages. Tech giants Oracle and Google had to shut down their data centres in London; cooling systems failed at Loughborough University. Across the country, infrastructure designed for milder weather proved unready for extreme heat. Fires broke out, lives were lost and roads melted. When the next heatwave comes, data centres could be at risk again, putting strain on vital services.
Data centres must be kept at precise temperatures to function properly, requiring large amounts of energy and water. A small change can offset the balance. While servers are designed with efficiency in mind, resilience against extreme weather can be overlooked. Many servers are placed underground, putting them at risk of flooding.
The UK has a significant data centre industry, supported by its proximity to Europe and its usually mild climate. In 2022, The National Grid ESO estimated there are 400-600 known data centres operating in the UK. But how many of them are prepared for the climate crisis?
In the side of a Norwegian mountain, 500 miles from London, cold concrete basks in ethereal server light. This is SVG-1 Rennesøy (pictured below), a disused Nato munitions bunker converted into a data centre. Cooled by renewable hydropower, the site was originally designed to withstand nuclear blasts and natural disasters.
And it isn’t alone. From Paris to Kent, disused bunkers are given new life as data centres. They are typically touted for their security, a key concern for companies looking to protect private data. However, they may also have potential for climate resilience. Designed for one looming apocalypse, abandoned bunkers could provide a ha
