Engineered Systems
Summary
The numbers are hard to ignore. In Northern Virginia – already home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world – peak energy usage from those facilities hit an estimated 2.8 gigawatts in 2022. By 2038, the regional utility is forecasting that number climbs to roughly 14 gigawatts. With approximately 265 data centers currently operating and another 110 planned before 2035, the region is staring down an infrastructure challenge that no single solution can fix on its own.
"The practical reality is both are not going to succeed without working together," said Michael Ahearn, who leads the system development group at Evergreen Energy, a 225-person district energy company headquartered in Minnesota. He was referring to the data center industry and the district energy sector – two worlds that have historically operated in parallel without much coordination. "It's the right thing to do, but it's also the only way that we're going to achieve the decarbonization goals."
Luke Gaalswyk, president and CEO of Evergreen Energy, framed it in straightforward terms. "Taking every kilowatt-hour of electricity that you put into a data center as far as possible is enabled through district energy integration," he said. Connecting data centers to district heating networks reduces cooling tower electricity usage, can eliminate active cooling tower water consumption entirely, and provides a far more efficient heat source for buildings than individual electric heat pumps or resistance heating.
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