With a few exceptions, almost all electricity that data centers consume ultimately winds up rejected as waste heat – and that will only grow in the coming years. But proven technology is in use to productively re-use waste heat from data centers in district energy systems, heating buildings and reducing the burden on the electric grid, decreasing costs and increasing sustainability.
Reshape Strategies, a leading consulting and advisory firm focusing on sustainable energy and infrastructure, recently published Data Heat: Sector Coupling of Data Centers & District Heating, a comprehensive analysis of the technical, business, and policy opportunities that data center waste heat re-use presents.
This 90-minute webinar will feature presentations and discussions among the report’s authors and others actively facilitating the use of waste-heat in district energy systems, including:
• What technical configurations of data center heat re-use are compatible with new and existing data centers, including the temperature profiles of the waste heat; the capital and space requirements at the data center and in the district energy system; and the anticipated heat reuse system efficiencies?
• Which factors determine the cost/benefit analysis of data center waste heat re-use compared to other low-carbon alternatives?
• What policy frameworks, both indirect and targeted, can support data center heat re-use reach its technical and economic potential?
• What recommendations do the authors have to identify favorable market segments, stakeholders and roles, and match possible policies & incentives to produce desired outcomes?
This webinar will be a helpful lead-in to IDEA’s District Energy and Data Centers Workshop on Tuesday, June 23 at our IDEA2026 annual conference in Ottawa, Ontario.
You can read the Data Heat report at https://learn.districtenergy.org/products/data-heat-sector-coupling-of-data-centers-district-heating-report
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