Hydropower plant for cloud servers

Author: Christian Tragner
published on 2024/10/29 in Kronen Zeitung

Carinthian IT specialist and head of Anexia Alexander Windbichler has now commissioned a hydropower plant to produce his own electricity for his data volumes.

Anexia is one of the most renowned cloud providers in the world. The IT company was founded in 2006 by Alexander Windbichler in Klagenfurt and offers solutions for individual software and app development. In addition to its headquarters in Klagenfurt, Anexia now has offices in Vienna, Graz, Karlsruhe and New York City.

Now, after a long search, IT specialist Windbichler has found its first private hydropower plant for generating electricity. “The hydropower plant is located in Kammern in the Liesingtal valley in Styria,” says the Klagenfurt native, who had to fork out a seven-figure sum for it. “In return, I can now use the water for decades. I was paying off my loan, so to speak, for the important energy production. Every second, 12,000 tons plunge into the depths, and the technology is used through a pressure pipeline.” 600 kW of electricity is generated, allowing Anexia to cover the entire consumption of the cloud servers.

Nevertheless, nature is not neglected in the water. “As in almost every body of water, fish live there. Extra fish ladders have been built for spawning,” says Windbichler. The personnel costs are not high either. “One person is on site. Every now and then a few firefighters go out, but that’s it.” And: “The 40-kilometer-long Liesing continues to flow, it’s a natural way of generating energy,” says Windbichler, who is now also looking for a hydropower plant in Carinthia.

Here you can find the online article in German: Kronen Zeitung