BMW i3 electric vehicle won green car award with help from Verne Global's Icelandic data centre, CTO claims
The i3, driven by an emission-free electric motor, won the Green Car Journal's Green Car of the Year award last November at the Los Angeles auto show.
Verne Global CTO Tate Cantrell told Techworld that BMW wanted to make sure everything for the i3 was sourced using green energy. As a result, the German car manufacturer decided to use Verne Global's data centre in Iceland because it's 100 percent powered by renewable energy resources, specifically geothermal and hydroelectric power.
The Verne Global data centre, currently being expanded off the back of a £65 million funding round, sits on a former Nato base in Keflavik, south-west Iceland.
BMW has been using high performance computers in Verne Global's data centre to simulate crash tests and run computer aided design (CAD) tasks since 2012.
The German car manufacturer is also using data centres to store the increasing amounts of vehicle information that are transmitted over the internet.
In addition to using Verne's green data centre, BMW chose to put electricity-generating wind turbines next to its manufacturing plant in Leipzig, Germany. It also claims that it took extra care in sourcing materials for the i3.
Green Car Journal judges praised BMW for its forward-thinking construction and BMW's general plans around sustainable transportation.
Cantrell said Verne Global is in talks with several other automotive companies that are interested in using the company's data warehouse.