Comment by 🐐 boringbbsuser
Re: "So, Munich's Eisbach river is currently less suitable for…"
Are they having water ingress issues from the river?
Mar 04 · 2 months ago
5 Later Comments ↓
🚀 mimas2AC [OP] · Mar 04 at 18:18:
They use indirect cooling with nearly no loss of water from the Eisbach River. The generated heat feeds the local district heating network, warming nearby buildings. According to the local press.
🐐 boringbbsuser · Mar 04 at 19:20:
That's impressive, in that case. Certainly better managed than many deloyments.
The only issue is that resistive heating (basically what's happening here) is way more inefficient than using a heat pump (aka: air conditioner). That said, I have to agree that it's much better to use the resulting heat from all that computing into heating homes than to completely waste it.
🚀 mimas2AC [OP] · Mar 05 at 08:07:
The history of river surfing on the Eisbach and the Eisbach itself is just as exciting. Here is a great blog post (only in German, but with photos worth seeing):
— https://www.buster-surfboards.com/eisbachwelle/
🚀 mimas2AC [OP] · Mar 05 at 08:22:
An article summary: The Eisbach was created in 1789 as part of the canal system of the English Garden. It is ~3 km long and powered mills and sawmills. In the 1970s, structural changes such as concrete blocks led to the creation of a standing wave, and river surfing emerged – initially illegally. In 2010, the city of Munich took over the site and legalized surfing for experienced users at their own risk. The wave is often considered the most consistent and largest urban river wave in the world. There have been several deaths in the Eisbach. In 2025, a surfer drowned when her leash got caught; the wave was closed, the proceedings were discontinued, and surfing was allowed again under stricter rules.
Original Post
So, Munich's Eisbach river is currently less suitable for surfing than for cooling AI servers. Telekom's new underground data center, initially equipped with around 10,000 AI accelerators from Nvidia, is now located under the weir in Tucherpark. At a depth of up to 30 meters, it is not a completely new building but a converted one, originally serving for a bank decades ago.... And the Eisbach river continues to flow over it. See c't 20.02.26