Data Centers & District Energy

Dublin InQuirer Summary A Dublin-based company is working on a new project to use extra heat from data centres in the Blanchardstown area to heat water and pipe it to surrounding businesses – dialling back fossil-fuel use for that. As part of a planning application to expand its operations out in Dublin 15, data-centre operators Pure DC said they plan to reduce carbon emissions in part by signing up to a district heating project being developed by HeatGrid Ireland. On the west coast, HeatGrid on 10 August got planning permission for a large district heating scheme in Galway. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

DCD Summary European data center developer Magnora has secured a firm grid connection for its Hämeenlinna data center project near Helsinki, Finland. The connection is scheduled for Q1 2029; however, the company claims it could be connected via a faster process, which could move the connection date up to H2 2028. In addition to the grid connection, Magnora also signed a non-binding Letter of Intent with a local utility to connect the data center to the local district heating network, backup power, and additional electricity for the project. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictEnergy

Yahoo! Tech Summary A spokesperson for OpenAI points to a web page outlining the company's plans to minimize water use, while Google aims to replenish 120 percent of the freshwater its data centers consume by 2030 through a variety of water stewardship projects. Some companies, such as Google , are also finding smart ways to use waste heat from data centers to help address other sustainability challenges, such as making building heating less reliant on fossil fuels. Across Europe, some data centers are funneling heat from cooling circuits into district heating systems used to warm buildings. Continue Reading #MemberNewsIDEA #google #DataCenter

The Asia Business Daily Summary The key feature of the Meta Odense Data Center is its eco-friendly infrastructure utilizing a resource recycling system. Instead of simply discarding the heat generated in the server rooms during operation, the data center captures it and repurposes it for local district heating through a heat recovery system. The waste heat produced by the data center’s heat exchangers is transferred to a heat pump system. Large-scale ammonia heat pumps increase the temperature to a district heating network-appropriate range of 70 to 75 degrees Celsius. The annual volume of waste heat captured from the server rooms and provided free of charge by Meta amounts to 165,000 MWh. This heat travels through the local district heating company’s network and is delivered to approximately 9,000 households. The highly efficient heat recovery system was taken into consideration from the very beginning of the data center’s design phase. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictHeating

Virginia Law Summary Virginia law directs the state Department of Energy to identify opportunities to beneficially use data-center waste heat and specifically calls out district heating systems as potential users. The department is also tasked with connecting data centers with heat users, studying international best practices, evaluating infrastructure costs and developing policy recommendations. A report is due September 1, 2026. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

Resource Works Summary Two new data centres have been proposed for Vancouver. The announcement was promptly drowned out by objections to it . Lost in the noise: the part where they help the city hit its climate targets. How? The waste heat the servers throw off would be steered into two of the city’s district energy systems, displacing natural gas and the greenhouse gas emissions that come with it. Developers have been doing exactly this in Europe for years—especially in Scandinavia, where district energy is common. Closer to home, two data centres already feed Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling System , which serves the downtown core. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

Energy Digital Summary Johnson Controls guide details how absorption chillers can convert generator waste heat into cooling, potentially worth US$18bn in added revenue Johnson Controls has released a reference design guide for data centre operators using on-site power generation. According to the company, these facilities lose 57% of the energy they produce as waste heat. The guide details how operators can redirect that heat into cooling systems rather than releasing it to the atmosphere. Johnson Controls calculates this approach could reduce cooling-related electrical demand by up to 44% and release capacity for compute workloads. According to Johnson Controls, a 1GW AI Factory using this method could support up to 97MW of additional AI computing capacity without increasing on-site generation. Continue Reading #MemberNewsIDEA #JohnsonControls #DataCenter #WasteHeat

Asia Business Daily Summary "The keywords for data centers should be being a good neighbor as a member of the local community. Data centers must also contribute to society." As communities grapple with the rapid expansion of AI data centers, Microsoft is demonstrating how district energy can help make these facilities better neighbors. Waste heat from new Microsoft data centers in Finland will be captured through a partnership with Fortum and used in district heating systems serving an estimated 250,000 people, potentially avoiding 400,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually. Microsoft says the project has also improved public and political perceptions of its data centers — an important example of how integrating data centers with community thermal infrastructure can deliver benefits beyond the facility fence line. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictEnergy

Business Insider Summary AirJoule Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: AIRJ) (“AirJoule”) and The Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers (the “Hub”) today announced a strategic collaboration to explore how waste heat from data center operations can be integrated into heat-to-water systems. As part of the strategic collaboration, AirJoule and the Hub will jointly assess how heat-to-water technology could contribute to future resource-efficient data center operations and heat reuse strategies. As the data center industry explores heat reuse models, there is growing interest in how waste heat can support broader resource recovery systems and create value beyond the data center fence. AirJoule's technology is designed to convert low-grade waste heat into usable water through a thermodynamic process that integrates with industrial and infrastructure environments. Continue Reading #News #Data Center #WasteHeat #DataCenter

DCD Summary Another data center development is being proposed in the northeast of England. Application documents suggest the facility would use a closed-loop air-cooled conditioning plant to reduce overall water consumption. The company also aims to explore possible uses in the area for its waste heat. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

Interesting Engineering Summary As artificial intelligence fuels an unprecedented boom in data center construction, operators are facing three growing challenges: securing enough electricity, sourcing vast amounts of cooling water, and reducing carbon emissions. At its core is a natural gas cogeneration system, also known as combined heat and power (CHP). Instead of simply generating electricity and wasting the excess heat, as conventional power plants often do, the system captures that thermal energy and puts it to work. Continue Reading #MRCNews #News #CHP

Join Jeff Cole and Josh Zankowicz of Edgecom Energy for a webinar on September 1 at 11:00am EST where they will explore heat recovery within data centres, utilizing the energy produced to provide grid-interactive solutions. The session will focus on how energy management in data centres can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enable companies to hit sustainability targets while meeting the AI demand. Attendees will be able to hear from and ask experts questions to grow their knowledge of this exciting technological opportunity for heat recovery and energy management! This webinar is intended for energy managers, engineers, facility managers, sustainability practitioners interested in learning more about AI, heat recovery and energy management. Edgecom Energy helps facilities cut energy costs, track real-time usage, and hit sustainability targets using their in-house software and dashboards to outsmart rising energy costs. Register Now #MemberNewsIDEA #DataCenter #wasteheatrecovery

Data Center News Summary Rehlko has published an eBook on power infrastructure for AI-driven data centres, outlining its view of how changing AI workloads are reshaping critical power requirements. Rehlko's central argument is that AI infrastructure planning now depends as much on dynamic behaviour as on nameplate capacity. In practice, that means operators must look beyond how much electricity a site can draw and focus more closely on how systems respond when demand changes constantly across computing clusters. Options highlighted include on-site gas generation, combined heat and power systems, battery energy storage, generator backup and modular power infrastructure delivered through its e-POD platform. Modelling tools, including digital twin methods where appropriate, can help operators test performance before deployment. Continue Reading #News #CHP #DataCenter

Reading Chronicle UK Summary A proposed data centre in Reading could generate enough surplus heat to warm up to 33,000 homes, according to a climate scientist. The intervention has prompted a response from Wokingham Borough Council leader Stephen Conway, who had an innovative suggestion - a so-called 'Local Heat Network'. Heat networks distribute heat or cooling from a central source, and deliver it to a variety of hospitals, shops, offices, public buildings and homes - and near the new data centre, a new Royal Berks Hospital might shortly be built. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

New York State Summary Governor Kathy Hochul today signed an Executive Order to create the nation’s first moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, establishing the strongest standards for data center development and creating a blueprint to support localities. The Governor is temporarily pausing State environmental permits for up to one year in order to build a nation-leading regulatory framework that protects ratepayers, the environment, the energy grid and communities across the state. “New York has always been at the forefront of innovation and change but we’ve also always guaranteed that New Yorkers benefit. As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it’s my responsibility to take action and lead,” Governor Hochul said. “New York will lead the way in creating the strongest standards in the nation for data center development, ensuring that when companies succeed because of New York, New Yorkers succeed too.” Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

DCD Summary The Wrocław University of Science and Technology has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a local heat and power plant operator to use waste heat from its data center to power a district heating network in Wrocław, western Poland. Like many countries in eastern and northern Europe, many homes and businesses in Poland are warmed using municipal district heating systems. By supplementing Wrocław’s network with heat from its university’s data center, both the municipal authorities and the higher education institution hope that the efficiency of the overall system will improve, reported Wrocławskie Fakty. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictHeating

ITPro Summary Pure Data Centres Group has announced plans to invest more than €7.5 Billion to build a sprawling data center campus in Finland. The deal represents one of the largest ever inward investment projects in Finnish history, and will see an initial pledge of €1.5 billion to develop a 110MW AI campus in Seinäjoki. The data halls located at the site are also based on a modular design aimed at streamlining efficiency and predictability. Jaakko Kiiskilä, Mayor of Seinäjoki Municipality, said waste heat from the data center will be repurposed to support the district’s heating network. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating

Time Summary In the public discourse, data centers have largely been cast as the villains of the AI boom—voracious consumers of natural resources that power our chatbots but threaten our climate progress. But in fact, there are clear, actionable ways we can design, build, and operate data centers that align with both our climate goals and societal values. We can push the envelope further by recycling the massive amounts of heat generated by data centers and using it to heat buildings. This is already the case in West London, where the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation is recovering 17 megawatts of waste heat generated by local data centers to warm up to 10,000 homes and businesses; in Norway, they’re using it to heat a trout farm . By thinking more holistically about how data centers are built and operated, we can also make them more beneficial to the communities that host them and to the planet as a whole. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictHeating

Fortune Summary As AI drives a massive expansion of data centers, one of the biggest opportunities is not just building more power generation — it’s capturing the enormous amount of energy we already waste, especially heat. The energy transition will depend on both large-scale supply and a fast, often invisible layer—efficiency, thermal recovery. Moving fast and smart – as an efficiency first strategy enables – is the winner as compared to the more cumbersome and costly conventional approach. Data centers turn much of their electricity into heat that is usually rejected into the atmosphere. Instead, that heat can be captured and reused for: heating nearby buildings district energy networks industrial processes other thermal applications Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

Financial Post Summary The European Union wants to propose a sustainability rating system for data centers to encourage greater energy and resource efficiency as the sector’s rapid expansion strains power grids and the environment. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, plans to unveil a regulation later this month requiring electronic labels for new and existing data centers to encourage new designs and efficiency improvements. The proposal aims to cut energy and water consumption, promote the use of clean energy and encourage the reuse of waste heat in nearby buildings or district heating networks, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg News. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

Energy Digital Summary Equinix and A2A are using waste heat from a Milan data centre campus to heat 21,000 homes through one of Europe's largest heat recovery projects. 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. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter #Content

The Seattle Times Summary The Seattle City Council unanimously passed an emergency freeze on siting new large data centers on June 9, paired with a policy framework directing the city to study what these facilities would mean for the grid, water, utility rates, land use, jobs and public health. All the right subjects, but one is missing, and it happens to be the one where Seattle is better-positioned than any city in the country. A few blocks from where the council voted, Amazon’s Doppler tower is heated by the data center across the street: The Westin Building Exchange, a carrier hotel housing more than 250 telecom and internet companies, pipes up to 5 megawatts of waste heat under the street to Amazon’s campus instead of venting it from rooftop cooling towers. The system recovers about 4 million kilowatt-hours a year and delivers heat roughly four times more efficiently than burning gas, and the city of Seattle was a partner in building it. The national demonstration project for data center heat reuse is not in Helsinki, it’s at Seventh Avenue and Lenora Street. Helsinki still matters because it shows that thermal waste reuse scales. Microsoft’s facilities there deliver up to 350 megawatts of thermal output into the city’s district heating network, covering 40% of heating demand for 250,000 customers. Stockholm, Sweden, pays operators for their heat, pulling recovered warmth from more than 20 facilities into a grid that warms roughly 30,000 apartments. ...

delano Summary Google’s proposed data centre in Bissen sparked a lively exchange between MP Joëlle Welfring and the minister for the economy, Lex Delles, during the plenary session on 18 June. It is on the issue of waste heat that the positions appear to be closest. The MP points out that the heat produced by the centre could provide heating for up to 10,000 households. However, she is seeking further details on the practical arrangements for recovering the heat, the necessary infrastructure and the safeguards required to turn this potential into reality. Lex Delles has made this issue a central focus of his strategy. He believes that the heat generated by data centres should no longer be viewed as wasted energy, but as a local resource. Discussions are already underway to integrate future centres into district heating networks, particularly in Bettembourg and around the Bissen project, he explained. According to him, proximity to residential or industrial areas capable of utilising this heat is now a key planning criterion. Continue Reading #MemberNewsIDEA #google #DistrictHeating

PR Newswire Summary SWEP – a world-leading supplier of brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHE) announced plans to continue expanding its global manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand that serve the global data center as well as industrial and commercial heating/cooling markets. The investments will include new furnaces, test equipment, press lines and automation in all five factories world-wide as well as expanded production space in SWEP's North American factory in Tulsa, OK. The expansion is an important initiative to bolster SWEP's commitment to our customers for efficient heat transfer in liquid cooling, energy efficiency, and energy security driven by: AI data centers – the increasing demand for compute power drives the need for reliable and high-performing data center cooling solutions that manage extreme heat from high-density workloads. Industrial and commercial heating/cooling – electrification is driving replacement of conventional systems in buildings, industries and district energy with systems based on heat pumps and chillers that enables favorable payback and use of sustainable refrigerants. Continue Reading #MemberNewsIDEA #SWEP #DataCenter

The Chronicle Summary Duke recently began construction on a small graphics processing unit data center, adjacent to Central Campus, that top administrators say will boost the University’s computing capacity while adhering to its Climate Commitment. The center — which is expected to open by the 2027-28 academic year — will be around 13,000 square feet and two stories tall. Located on the east side of Anderson Street, it will connect to one of the University’s three chilled water plants. Continue Reading #MemberNewsIDEA #DukeUniversity