When people think about powering a city's heating system, data centres are unlikely to come to mind.
Yet in Milan, heat produced by thousands of servers is being recovered and converted into usable energy for the city's district heating network, creating a new low-carbon heat source for homes and public buildings including the Duomo and Palazzo Reale.
The initiative highlights how digital infrastructure can also play a growing role in supporting urban energy systems.
Equinix's ML5 data centre at the company's Settimo Milanese campus will provide the recovered heat, which will be transferred to a new A2A Energy Center before entering Milan's district heating network.
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