Data Center Knowledge
Industry Perspectives from IDEA President & CEO, Rob Thornton
Summary
The rise of energy-hungry AI and cloud computing is transforming the North American economy and placing new demands on its electric infrastructure. In 2023, data centers consumed about 4.4% of U.S. electricity. By 2028, that number could rise to as high as 12%.
With this explosive growth, competition for clean energy is getting fierce, threatening to strain the electric grid and create supply shortages. However, one clean solution is often neglected: heat reuse.
Data centers create a lot of heat. Unfortunately, that heat energy usually wafts into the air, wasted. But it doesn’t have to be.
Innovative data centers now reuse the heat in district energy systems – underground networks of insulated pipes that can deliver hot water, steam, and chilled water to multiple nearby buildings.
In most cases, data centers tie into already existing district energy systems in urban areas. However, some policy planners are beginning to contemplate creating new district energy systems in areas of concentrated data center development, such as Northern Virginia.
Equinix, a Redwood City, California, company that operates 260 data centers, partners with district energy companies on heat export to achieve its energy and sustainability goals, particularly in Europe and Canada.
Noah Nkonge, senior manager of sustainability and heat export, said Equinix evaluates the potential to export heat at each of its locations – including options to partner with district energy companies on new data center projects or to retrofit existing data centers to connect to heating networks.
“We do heat export because it's the right thing to do,” said Nkonge. “But it’s something that we can’t do alone. As part of our market-leading heat export program, we need to work with municipalities and also energy operators to make these projects a success.”
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