Norway Cools Supercomputer 60m Deep Using Fjord Water

Deep inside a Norwegian mountain, where miners once extracted olivine, a supercomputer now hums without the massive cooling systems that typically drain energy from data centers worldwide.

The Lefdal Mine Datacenter operates 60 meters below sea level on Norway's west coast, carved into 120,000 square meters of rock galleries. In June 2025, Norway inaugurated Olivia, the country's most powerful supercomputer, inside this former mine that closed its mineral operations decades ago.

The facility's secret weapon is geography. Cold water from a 565-meter-deep fjord naturally cools the servers, while the mountain's stable rock temperature eliminates nearly all traditional cooling costs. Most data centers spend up to 40% of their energy just keeping equipment from overheating.

Getting there requires a propeller plane from Oslo to Sandane, a ferry across the fjord, and a winding drive along the water's edge. From outside, only a steel door carved into the mountainside hints at what's within. The interior resembles an underground city with 14 "streets" connected by a 300-meter "avenue" running through the third level.

The mine originally opened in 1971 when North Cape Minerals began extracting olivine, operating what was then the world's largest mine of its kind. After mining operations ceased, Norwegian engineers saw potential in the empty tunnels. The natural insulation of 700 meters of mountain rock, combined with access to Arctic-temperature fjord water, created perfect conditions for high-performance computing.

The Ripple Effect

This retrofit shows promise for similar projects worldwide. Thousands of abandoned mines exist across Europe and North America, many with ideal conditions for sustainable data centers. As artificial intelligence and cloud computing demand more processing power, the tech industry faces growing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint.

The Norwegian facility proves that infrastructure built for one era can power the next. The same geological features that made Nordfjordeid ideal for mining make it perfect for computing. Local communities benefit too, as tech jobs replace vanished mining work in rural areas.

One mine in Norway is helping prove that our digital future doesn't have to cost the Earth.