{"id":1822,"date":"2026-11-10T16:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.horus.ch\/solar-energy\/how-it-works\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T21:54:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T20:54:53","slug":"how-it-works","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/solar-energy\/how-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"How it works"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"horus-block how-it-works alignwide\"><div class=\"hiw-stage\" data-mode=\"day\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 760 560\" role=\"img\" aria-labelledby=\"hiw-title\"><title id=\"hiw-title\">Diagram: our solar plants feed their production into the grid, which powers our servers day and night.<\/title><rect class=\"sky\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" width=\"760\" height=\"560\" rx=\"24\"\/><g class=\"sun\"><circle cx=\"96\" cy=\"86\" r=\"46\" class=\"sun-glow\"\/><circle cx=\"96\" cy=\"86\" r=\"26\" class=\"sun-ring\"\/><circle cx=\"96\" cy=\"86\" r=\"7\" class=\"sun-core\"\/><\/g><g class=\"moon\"><circle 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style=\"animation-delay:0s\"\/><path class=\"cable\" d=\"M241.3 235.2 Q289.85 212.45 338.4 169.7\"\/><path class=\"cable\" d=\"M338.4 169.7 Q371.3 229.3 404.2 260.9\"\/><path class=\"cable\" d=\"M338.4 169.7 Q400.1 153.55 461.8 117.4\"\/><path class=\"flow flow-day\" d=\"M241.3 235.2 Q289.85 212.45 338.4 169.7\"\/><path class=\"flow flow-all\" d=\"M338.4 169.7 Q371.3 229.3 404.2 260.9\"\/><path class=\"flow flow-day flow-out\" d=\"M338.4 169.7 Q400.1 153.55 461.8 117.4\"\/><path class=\"flow flow-night\" d=\"M461.8 117.4 Q400.1 153.55 338.4 169.7\"\/><g class=\"tag\" transform=\"translate(231.5 54.7)\"><circle r=\"11\"\/><text class=\"tag-n\" y=\"4\">1<\/text><text class=\"tag-t\" x=\"17\" y=\"4\">Our solar plants<\/text><\/g><g class=\"tag\" transform=\"translate(473.3 69)\"><circle r=\"11\"\/><text class=\"tag-n\" y=\"4\">2<\/text><text class=\"tag-t\" x=\"17\" y=\"4\">The power grid<\/text><\/g><g class=\"tag\" transform=\"translate(514.5 204.8)\"><circle r=\"11\"\/><text class=\"tag-n\" y=\"4\">3<\/text><text class=\"tag-t\" x=\"17\" y=\"4\">Our servers<\/text><\/g><\/svg><\/div><div class=\"hiw-side\"><div class=\"seg\" role=\"tablist\" aria-label=\"Time of day\"><button type=\"button\" role=\"tab\" data-mode=\"day\" aria-selected=\"true\">By day<\/button><button type=\"button\" role=\"tab\" data-mode=\"night\" aria-selected=\"false\">At night<\/button><button type=\"button\" role=\"tab\" data-mode=\"year\" aria-selected=\"false\">The balance<\/button><\/div><div class=\"hiw-text\" data-for=\"day\"><h3>By day<\/h3><p>The sun is shining: our panels produce electricity. Our servers use a small part of it; the rest \u2014 by far the largest share \u2014 is fed into the grid and powers our neighbours directly.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"hiw-text\" data-for=\"night\" hidden><h3>At night<\/h3><p>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 \u2014 with no chemical batteries to manufacture or recycle.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"hiw-text\" data-for=\"year\" hidden><h3>The balance<\/h3><p>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 \u2014 and largely exceeded \u2014 by our own solar production, since 2004.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The grid as a battery<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A server runs day and night; the sun doesn\u2019t. Rather than storing our electricity in batteries \u2014 expensive to manufacture, replace and recycle \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What this means for you<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-check\">\n<li><strong>Your website<\/strong>: the energy used by our servers (production and backup) is fully offset by our solar production.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Your e-mails<\/strong>: the energy needed to store, send and receive your messages is offset \u2014 that is the principle of EcoMail, the world\u2019s first green e-mail.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Your text messages<\/strong>: the energy of an EcoSMS, from writing to reading, is offset by photovoltaic energy.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Your data<\/strong>: it stays in Switzerland, on our own servers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why not run directly on our panels?<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-ocre\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/solar-energy\/live-production\/\">See the live production<\/a><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-ghost\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/solar-plants\/\">Our solar plants<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our servers run day and night; the sun doesn\u2019t. Here is how we offset every kWh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1814,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1822","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1876,"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1822\/revisions\/1876"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horus.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}