Norwegian developer Polar Data Centers is applying a factory-built deployment model from Vertiv and Nvidia to the first 41MW phase of its AI data centre at Herøya. On the same day, 21 October, Polar and US AI cloud company Crusoe announced a second, 40MW facility at the Tørdal campus, powered by hydroelectricity.
Prefabricated modules at Herøya
Vertiv and Nvidia used the GTC Berlin conference to present an approach that combines virtual design and validation of pre-engineered reference architectures with factory-built power and cooling. Polar is the first named operator to adopt it. Its Herøya project is planned in several phases, with the campus scalable to 100MW.
For the first phase, Vertiv says it will supply prefabricated power and thermal modules, its SmartRun prefabricated overhead infrastructure system and SmartMod modules, managed through its Unify software. The design work draws on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory reference design and Omniverse DSX Blueprint, Vertiv’s SimReady digital assets and Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
“Our customers measure us on how quickly capacity is ready for them,” said Polar chief executive Andy Hayes in Vertiv’s announcement.
The modelled numbers
Vertiv’s figures are based on modelling under defined assumptions rather than results from a completed site:
- Configuration and validation cut from about 30 days to three.
- Infrastructure deployment cut from about 90 days to 45.
- Combined, roughly 120 days reduced to 48, bringing capacity online about ten weeks earlier.
- As a result, up to 30% more cumulative AI token output in the first 12 months from the same installed capacity.
A second Crusoe site at Tørdal
Separately, Polar and Crusoe expanded a partnership first announced in June 2025. Their first facility at Tørdal, DRA01, is live with 12MW of IT capacity and supports Crusoe’s AI cloud. The new DRA02 phase will add 40MW of critical, liquid-cooled IT capacity and is expected to go live in late 2027. Crusoe plans to install Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 systems there.
Crusoe co-founder Cully Cavness highlighted that the site “runs on 100% renewable hydroelectric power”. Crusoe is also one of the 17 launch partners for Nvidia’s containerised DSX POD design, unveiled at the same event.
Why it matters for modular and edge in Europe
Polar’s projects show prefabrication moving from a niche choice into the mainstream of European AI capacity. Rather than containerising entire data halls, the Herøya model prefabricates the power, cooling and overhead distribution that usually consume the most on-site labour and commissioning time. That hybrid approach — a conventional building shell fitted with factory-made modules — is likely to be the most common form of “modular” in Europe’s larger projects.
Norway’s attractions are well known: low-carbon hydropower, a cool climate and available industrial land. Shortening build times matters there because the scarcer resource is often the grid connection itself; once power is secured, every week of construction saved is a week of revenue gained. Whether Vertiv’s modelled time savings hold up will become clearer once Herøya’s first phase is commissioned.
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