CERN’s Meyrin site covers 80 hectares. The number of buildings on the site is 380, ranging from 1 to 10,800 m². The number of workplaces is estimated at 7,000. The site houses key tertiary facilities, such as most of the administrative buildings, 3 hotels (~ 500 rooms), 2 restaurants, the main building with auditoriums and general services, and unique technical infrastructures such as the PS and LINAC facilities, the CERN computing center, the superconducting magnet production facilities, etc. Building 201 houses the Meyrin heating plant distributing heat over a 15 km network.

The new sustainable heating plant will recuperate wasted energy from the LHC cooling towers at Point1 to cover a large fraction of the current heating needs in the Meyrin site, with a much-reduced carbon emission and a raise of the renewable energy rate, following the European and Swiss directives about energy efficiency.

Operation start: 2027

View of the Meyrin site with tertiary and technical buildings, and beamlines (in blue)