Kuzbass governor proposes data centres in worked-out coal pits

Kemerovo region governor Ilya Seredyuk (Илья Середюк) has proposed locating data centres in worked-out coal pits in Kuzbass, according to Russian reports published on October 15. Speaking at Russian Energy Week, he said the sites could offer a way to reduce costs associated with creating and cooling such facilities. The proposal concerned former mining areas rather than a newly announced data-centre construction project with a specified budget or schedule. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Seredyuk described worked-out pits that could be around 300 metres deep and said groundwater could be used to cool equipment. RIA Novosti reported that he discussed placing the infrastructure of data centres, computing centres or mining centres in the former coal workings. He said this would address cooling and climatic issues and claimed that capital costs for creating the facilities would be minimal. He also argued that placing a data centre in a worked-out pit would improve its protection from external impacts. [ 1 , 3 ]

Kommersant, quoting TASS, reported Seredyuk's view that putting a monolithic building into a former pit would bring savings in both capital expenditure and operating expenditure for the cooling system. The governor also pointed to resources coal companies currently have to spend on reclaiming sites after mining ends. RIA Novosti similarly reported his description of pits that companies are required to fill and restore. Those reclamation obligations formed part of his explanation for using the sites for a different purpose. The reports presented cooling savings and enhanced protection as the governor's expectations, without providing measurements or detailed financial estimates demonstrating the scale of those benefits. [ 3 , 4 ]