WindCORES

What WindCORES does

WindCORES (legally WestfalenWIND IT GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Paderborn, Germany) operates data centers physically housed inside the towers of operating wind turbines, drawing electricity directly from on-site generation. The company was conceived as a spin-off concept from WestfalenWIND Group — which manages approximately 170 wind turbines with ~350 MW of installed capacity — and first piloted the approach near Lichtenau in 2019. The core technical architecture integrates IT infrastructure into the reinforced-concrete turbine tower (which doubles as a security enclosure and passive cooling sink), connects via redundant fiber to the Frankfurt internet exchange at up to 400 GBit/s and 3.5 ms latency, and is co-developed with the University of Paderborn's SICP research institute under a registered patent. Operations advertise 99.98% availability and 90%+ wind-power utilization, with each 3 kW rack estimated to avoid roughly 14 tons of CO2 per year.

The commercial offering is a two-line B2B portfolio: (1) windCORES Cloud — subscription-based IaaS with customizable virtual machines, firewalls, VLANs, and Azure peering, configured from small (8 vCPU) to enterprise (180 vCPU) tiers; and (2) windCORES Colocation — physical rack or unit-level hosting inside the turbine facilities. Pricing is quote-based on multi-year contracts, with the value proposition framed around permanently low and stable electricity costs (energy being ~40% of conventional data center OPEX). Go-to-market is enterprise field sales targeting German mid-sized and industrial companies, supplemented by a self-service cloud portal (brise.windcores.cloud) and channel partnerships with IT system houses such as Green IT Das Systemhaus and Netzkultur.

The company is privately held as a brand within the WestfalenWIND Group and has no external venture capital funding. Growth is instead financed through parent-company cash flow, a BMBF-funded GreenHPC/ESN4NW research consortium (€2.5M over three years), and participation in the European IPCEI-CIS Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services initiative. Customers include Zattoo (TV streaming), Netzkultur (software), Christie Data (backup/DR), Lanthan Safe Sky (wind-farm aviation lighting), and Green IT Das Systemhaus (reseller). The firm has won the German Data Centre Prize (2019), the ECN Sustainability Award (2023), the Datacenter Strategy Award (2024), and the German Sustainability Award 2026.

Name

WindCORES

Legal name

WestfalenWIND IT GmbH & Co. KG

Website

https://windcores.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

WindCORES (Paderborn, Germany) operates CO2-neutral data centers housed inside operating wind turbines, offering cloud (IaaS) and colocation services to German mid-sized and enterprise B2B customers via its parent WestfalenWIND Group's renewable energy infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sustainable Cloud Infrastructure

NAICS

Wind Electric Power Generation (221115), Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution (2211)

SIC

Engines & Turbines (3510)

akta.pro primary industry

Community & Distributed Wind Power Generation (Behind-the-Meter/Small Wind) (EUACAFAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Wind Operations, Maintenance & Asset Management (Scheduled/Unscheduled) (EUAMACAH), Advanced Wind Technology R&D (Floating Offshore, Airborne Wind, New Rotor/Blade Concepts) (EUAMAOAB)

Keywords

• Sustainable cloud hosting
• Wind turbine colocation
• Green data centers
• Renewable energy computing
• Carbon neutral infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

Paderborn

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Cloud and Colocation Services: Recurring subscription-based pricing for cloud infrastructure services (virtual machines, storage, networking) and colocation services (rack space, power allocation). Customers pay based on allocated resources with long-term contractual arrangements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

WindCORES operates climate-neutral cloud computing and colocation services by housing data center infrastructure directly inside operating wind turbines at the Lichtenau wind farm in Germany. The company provides customizable virtual machines, storage, networking, and rack space powered entirely by on-site generated wind electricity, with direct fiber connectivity to the Frankfurt internet exchange point.

Product overview

WindCORES is a green IT provider offering two integrated service lines: Cloud (IaaS with customizable virtual machines, firewalls, and connectivity) and Colocation (physical rack space in wind turbine facilities). Both services leverage a unique infrastructure model where data centers are housed directly inside wind turbines, providing CO2-neutral computing powered by 100% on-site renewable wind energy. The portfolio includes windCORES I (original single-turbine facility) and windCORES II (multi-level second-generation facility), both featuring direct fiber connectivity to Frankfurt internet hub with up to 400 GBit/s capacity and 3.5ms latency.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• WindCORES++: A new concept for cloud hosting introduced in 2019 that won the German Data Centre Prize in the 'Ideas and Research around the Data Centre' category.

Products and services

• windCORES Cloud CO2-neutral Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud computing hosted inside wind turbines, offering customizable virtual machines, firewalls, VLANs, Azure peering, and storage with 100% on-site green electricity. Configurations range from 8 vCPU/32GB RAM for craft businesses up to 180 vCPU/1800GB RAM for industrial deployments.
• windCORES Colocation Co-location service that lets customers install their own server hardware in dedicated height units or full racks inside wind turbine facilities, benefiting from direct wind power supply, redundant high-speed connectivity to Frankfurt, and physical security from reinforced concrete tower structures.
• windCORES I Original wind turbine data center facility in Lichtenau near Paderborn, hosting four fire-resistant IT security cabinets protected by reinforced concrete tower structure and EMC shielding for climate-neutral computing operations.
• windCORES II Second-generation multi-level data center facility operational from September 2024, designed to handle larger data volumes and rapidly increasing computing capacity demands with the same wind-powered climate-neutral architecture.

Quantifiable outcome

• 14 tons CO2 saved annually per rack with 3kW power consumption
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ZattoocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2020Zattoo, one of Europe's largest TV streaming providers, operates its own data center directly in a wind turbine through the WindCORES project. This pioneering collaboration enables climate-neutral streaming with servers running inside wind turbines at the Lichtenau wind farm. Zattoo streams over 80 million hours of content monthly using this infrastructure.
• University of Paderborn (SICP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing research partnership with Software Innovation Campus Paderborn (SICP) for development of sustainable data center concepts. The partnership began in 2014 and led to the patent registration for wind turbine data centers. Dr. Gunnar Schomaker from SICP has been a key collaborator on the WindCORES project.
• IPCEI-CIS ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWindCORES is a partner in the European IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) - Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services project. Funded with up to €1.2 billion in public funds and €1.4 billion from industry, the project involves 19 companies including Atos, Siemens, SAP, and Deutsche Telekom. WindCORES provides decentralized data center interfaces for energy-efficient, climate-neutral operations.
• GreenHPC / ESN4NW ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject funded by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with approximately €2.5 million over three years. Led by SICP, the consortium includes University of Passau, Fraunhofer IZM, AixpertSoft, Rittal, Atos Deutschland, and Zattoo. Develops HPC infrastructure within wind turbines utilizing directly available renewable energy.
• HLRS (High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership connecting WindCORES wind turbine computers with HLRS HPC computing resources through intelligent scheduling procedures that optimize workflow distribution across distributed resources.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves1 record

Direct peers

• EcoDataCenter: Swedish climate-positive data center operator selling colocation and HPC services to European enterprises with renewable-powered facilities. Comparable in green DC positioning and ESG-led go-to-market.
• Hetzner Online: Germany-based hosting/cloud/colocation provider serving price-sensitive SMEs and mid-market — directly overlapping WindCORES' primary target segment and value proposition (low cost, German data residency, sustainability claims).
• Green Mountain: Norwegian colocation provider running data centers powered almost entirely by hydropower, with similar sustainability-driven, low-PUE value proposition and a focus on European enterprise customers. Closely comparable in positioning, though using hydro rather than wind.
• Cloud&Heat Technologies: German provider of sustainable, water-cooled cloud and data center infrastructure that won the same German Data Centre Prize 'Resource-efficient Data Centres' category in 2019 (with WindCORES taking second place). Direct competitor in climate-neutral/green IT services for the German and EU market.
• Maincubes: European (German-headquartered) colocation provider with multiple data centers in Frankfurt and Amsterdam serving enterprise customers. Comparable target market and product mix (colocation + cloud-adjacent services), though without the wind-turbine integration.

Broad incumbents

• T-Systems (Deutsche Telekom): Subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom providing enterprise cloud, colocation, and managed data center services across Europe — partner in the same IPCEI-CIS consortium as WindCORES. Comparable in regulated enterprise/government cloud customer base.
• OVHcloud: European hyperscale cloud and bare-metal/colocation provider with sustainability programs (water-cooled, recycled hardware). Competes in the same mid-market and sovereign-cloud segments WindCORES targets.
• IONOS: Large German incumbent cloud/hosting provider (United Internet subsidiary) offering a broad portfolio of cloud, server, and colocation products to European SMEs and enterprises. Overlaps with WindCORES on cloud services and German mid-market focus but operates at much larger scale.

Regional players

• NorthC Datacenters: Netherlands-based regional colocation provider with several data centers across the Benelux/DACH region serving enterprise customers. Comparable in regional European colocation positioning and mid-market focus.

Emerging players

• EdgeConneX: Global edge data center operator focused on distributed, low-latency compute close to end users — conceptually adjacent to WindCORES' edge/HPC positioning, though much larger and broader in scope.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/westfalenwind-it-gmbh
• Facebookfacebook.com/windcores

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about WindCORES