By day
The sun is shining: our panels produce electricity. Our servers use a small part of it; the rest — by far the largest share — is fed into the grid and powers our neighbours directly.
At night
The sun has set: our servers draw from the grid the energy we fed into it during the day. The grid acts as a huge battery — with no chemical batteries to manufacture or recycle.
The balance
Over a year, our plants produce far more electricity than our servers consume. Every kWh used by your website, your e-mails or your text messages is therefore offset — and largely exceeded — by our own solar production, since 2004.
The grid as a battery
A server runs day and night; the sun doesn’t. Rather than storing our electricity in batteries — expensive to manufacture, replace and recycle — we feed it into the power grid. During the day, our surplus directly supplies nearby consumers. At night, our servers draw their power from the grid.
Over the year, the balance is clear: our plants produce far more than our infrastructure consumes. Every kWh used by our services is therefore offset by a solar kWh that we produced ourselves, in Switzerland.
What this means for you
- Your website: the energy used by our servers (production and backup) is fully offset by our solar production.
- Your e-mails: the energy needed to store, send and receive your messages is offset — that is the principle of EcoMail, the world’s first green e-mail.
- Your text messages: the energy of an EcoSMS, from writing to reading, is offset by photovoltaic energy.
- Your data: it stays in Switzerland, on our own servers.
Why not run directly on our panels?
Our servers are in a secure data centre, our panels on well-exposed rooftops. The grid connects the two. This lets us build plants where the sun shines best and the roofs are largest, while guaranteeing our servers an uninterrupted power supply.