Data Centers & District Energy

The Energy Mix Summary In wintry Nordic countries like Finland and Sweden, some people are warming up to the idea of having data centres as neighbours, but concerns about “sustainable digitization” linger. Data centres in several countries with colder climates are channelling excess heat from their facilities through underground piping to warm nearby homes, Bloomberg News reports . Kai Mykkanene, mayor of Espoo, Finland’s second-largest city, said a new cluster of Microsoft data centres soon to be connected to the city’s district heating network will help eliminate local carbon emissions by 2030. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictEnergy

IT Brief Summary Equinix has been named a Leader in a new global assessment of data centre sustainability by research group IDC MarketScape. The study is IDC's first worldwide evaluation of sustainability practices among data centre services providers. It assesses strategy and execution over a three to five-year period and in the near term. IDC cites waste heat reuse as one area of progress. Equinix exported 14.5 GWh of residual heat from its data centre operations in 2024. This represented a 245% increase over the previous year. Sites in Helsinki, Toronto and Paris supplied excess thermal energy into municipal district heating systems and local community facilities. Continue Reading #News #Equinix #DataCenter

The A Register Summary The way that organisations plan, design and run a datacentre was already under pressure. AI has turned that pressure into a once-in-generation stress test, one that is inspiring a top-to-bottom rethink of what the datacentre does, how it does it, and where. AI factories are inevitably power-hungry by design. Energy strategy – always important – becomes a first-order architectural decision. Strong frames this decision in two stages. “If we’re talking huge amounts of power, the first thing you’ve got to consider is where you’re going to get that power from,” he says. “The second is what you’re going to do with the heat that comes off those platforms – and how you’re going to reuse it.” HPE’s partnership with Danfoss is aimed squarely at that second question. The companies are combining HPE’s modular datacentres with Danfoss heat reuse technology to cut datacentre energy consumption and route excess heat into local heating systems. HPE’s modular facilities use direct liquid cooling to reduce overall energy consumption by 20 percent, while Danfoss heat reuse modules can capture that “waste” thermal energy and feed it into district heating networks or industrial applications. Continue Reading #News

Today Summary From emails to social media to online shopping, banking and chatting — everything we rely on everyday goes through an AI data center. The biggest concentration of those centers anywhere in the world sits in Loudon County, Virginia, where two-thirds of the world’s internet traffic flows. Reporting for TODAY, NBC’s Tom Costello shares an inside look at the Digital Realty Innovation Lab that houses the servers and processors that power the internet and AI. Watch Report #News

Yahoo! Finance Summary Enhanced geothermal startup Fervo Energy has raised $462 million to complete its first large-scale power plant and begin development on several others as it races to provide electricity to a power-hungry grid. The new funds will help the company continue work on its 500-megawatt Cape Station power plant in Utah while starting development on several others, Sara Jewett, senior vice president of strategy at Fervo, told TechCrunch. Fervo has an existing deal with Google to supply it with electricity for its data centers. Continue Reading #News #GeothermalandGeo-Exchange

StateTech Summary Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI , is putting stress on the power and cooling capacities of data centers around the world. With state and local governments embracing AI for a growing range of workloads, the pressures around on-premises power use have never been greater. The cloud’s not an easy solution either. The amount of data used can be prohibitively expensive. Some state and local governments are thinking outside the box for a solution, and one answer is microgrids: small electrical networks that can help meet power needs for their facilities. Continue Reading #News #Microgrids #DataCenter

Pulse 2.0 Summary Trane Technologies announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Stellar Energy’s Digital business from Stellar Energy International, marking a significant expansion of its capabilities in data center thermal management. The deal brings one of the sector’s leading turnkey liquid-to-chip cooling providers under the Trane Technologies umbrella as demand for scalable and energy-efficient data center infrastructure continues to accelerate globally. Continue Reading #News #Trane #MemberNewsIDEA #DataCenter

ASU Summary The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Arizona State University and DCX USA, LLC, as key research partners for its Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) program, an innovative national effort led by Idaho National Laboratory to establish novel applications for advanced microreactor technologies. “Data centers are the backbone of our digital future, and the energy they require is growing exponentially,” said George Slessman, founder of DCX. “Through this partnership with ASU and INL, we’re demonstrating that nuclear-powered, AI-optimized infrastructure is not only feasible — it’s essential. This work lays the foundation for sovereign, resilient and infinitely scalable AI capacity built here in the United States.” Continue Reading #News #MemberNewsIDEA #ArizonaStateUniversity #DepartmentofEnergy #DataCenter

Interesting Engineering Summary Global electricity consumption from data centers is accelerating far faster than previously projected, raising new questions about how the world will power the next wave of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Electricity use from data centers in 2024 is estimated at around 415 terawatt-hours, roughly 1.5% of global consumption, and has grown by 12% annually over the past five years. Universities and industrial operators are exploring SMRs and microreactors for combined heat and power applications. A planned microreactor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with Nano Nuclear Energy, aims to supply steam and electricity to campus buildings while offering a platform for research, regulatory licensing, and demonstration of advanced nuclear technologies. Continue Reading #News #News #CHP

DCD Summary A Deutsche Telekom data center has started supplying waste heat to a district heating system in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany. The waste heat is being supplied to the Pallasseum, a listed 1970s building with 500 apartments and approximately 2,000 residents. PASM Power and Solution GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, Gewobag, and the GASAG Group, installed the system. “The energy transition won’t be decided solely in new buildings, but above all in existing ones. The Pallasseum impressively demonstrates how we can intelligently integrate unused energy sources, such as server waste heat, into existing systems,” said Matthias Trunk, sales director of GASAG. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

PR Newswire Summary SWEP , part of Dover and a world-leading supplier of brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs), today announced the launch of two new products, SWEP B327 and SWEP B224, developed to meet growing market demand in data center cooling and district energy applications. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) on the rise, power and processing in data centers require efficient alternatives to traditional air cooling. Both new products, which expand the range of SWEP liquid cooling solutions for data centers, are developed for single-phase applications such as data center cooling and district heating, with shared design features including large ports for high flow rates, low pressure drop, and high thermal efficiency. Continue Reading #News #MemberNewsIDEA #SWEP #DataCenter

tanahair Summary The latest report from Project InnerSpace, entitled The Future of Geothermal in Indonesia, reveals that Indonesia’s geothermal energy potential is 2,160 gigawatts (GW). This finding opens up enormous opportunities for Indonesia to use geothermal energy not only as a source of electricity but also as a provider of industrial heat and district cooling systems for industrial estates, new cities, and data centres. Geothermal district cooling is considered highly suitable for supporting the growth of data centres and industrial cities in Indonesia. This technology can reduce cooling electricity consumption by 50–70%, provide cleaner air, and reduce the burden on the electricity grid. Continue Reading #News #GeothermalandGeo-Exchange #DataCenter #DistrictCooling

POWER Summary Vertiv, a global critical digital infrastructure group, and power systems leader Caterpillar announced the signing of a strategic undertaking to collaborate on advanced energy optimization solutions for data centers. The initiative unveiled November 18 will integrate Vertiv’s power distribution and cooling portfolio with Caterpillar’s, and its subsidiary Solar Turbines’, product and expertise in power generation and CCHP (combined cooling, heat, and power) to deliver pre-designed architectures that simplify deployment, accelerate time-to-power and optimize performance for data center operations. Continue Reading #News #SolarTurbines #Caterpillar #DataCenter #MemberNewsIDEA

Connect CRE Summary The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking proposals from U.S. companies to build and power AI data centers at Idaho National Laboratory . The move is aimed at driving private sector funding to grow the nation’s AI computing capabilities and help meet future energy demands. DOE’s Idaho Operations Office is now seeking proposals from companies to potentially enter into one or more long-term leasing agreements at the site that would be solely funded by the applicants. Idaho National Laboratory is one of four sites identified by the Department for AI infrastructure and generation projects on federal land. The other locations include the Oak Ridge Reservation, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and the Savannah River Site. The DOE site office previously identified approximately 44,000 acres of land for AI infrastructure projects and for energy generation and storage projects with AI data centers, which could include advanced nuclear reactors, enhanced geothermal systems, and cold underground thermal energy storage. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #MemberNewsIDEA #DepartmentofEnergy #GeothermalandGeo-Exchange

DCD Summary Nordic data center developer atNorth has signed a deal to supply waste heat to a district heating network in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company finalized an agreement with Vestforbrænding, Denmark’s largest waste-to-energy company, to supply excess heat from its DEN01 data center campus to Vestforbrænding’s district heating network. “For many years, we have talked about surplus heat from data centers being part of the future," said Steen Neuchs Vedel, CEO of Vestforbrænding. "Now the future is here. With today’s contract signing, we are showing the way forward for how surplus heat from data centers can reach people’s homes. There has also been talk about sector coupling in the district heating sector – today we demonstrate how this can happen in practice, to the benefit of consumers." According to the companies, the excess heat from the data center will be able to heat more than 8,000 homes in the local area, starting from 2028. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictHeating

culture map dallas Summary Google is investing a huge chunk of money in Texas: According to a release, the company will invest $40 billion on cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, with the development of new data centers in Armstrong and Haskell Counties. Google has contracted to add more than 6,200 megawatts (MW) of net new energy generation and capacity to the Texas electricity grid through power purchase agreements (PPAs) with energy developers such as AES Corporation, Enel North America, Intersect, Clearway, ENGIE, SB Energy, Ørsted, and X-Elio. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #ENGIE

Arctic Today Summary The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has signed a loan agreement of NOK 1 billion (approximately EUR 86 million) with Hafslund AS to finance three strategic investments in Norway: the rebuilding of the Braskereidfoss hydropower facilities, construction of the Skygard Data Centre in Oslo, and the upgrade of Aker Hospital’s heating system. Construction is underway on a 20 MW data centre at Økern, Oslo, with completion of the first phase approaching. The data centre will enable the reuse of excess heat in the district heating system in Oslo. Hafslund Celsio upgrades and integrates the hospital’s heating system into Oslo’s northern district heating network. The upgrade will decrease emissions and secure reliable thermal energy during peak demand. Hafslund is Norway’s second largest renewable energy group with 81 power plants that together produce 21 TWh annually. Hafslund is also Norway’s largest district heating supplier, delivering 1.9 TWh of district heating to 400,000 people and businesses in Oslo. In addition, the group is involved in carbon capture and wind power, and has a 50 percent stake in Eidsiva Energi. Eidsiva Energi owns 100 percent of Elvia, Norway’s largest grid company. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating

devidiscourse Summary A new study published in Sustainability warns that the booming growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing could double global data center energy consumption by 2030. However, researchers argue that a key technology, waste heat recovery (WHR), could transform these digital energy giants into models of environmental sustainability. By using heat pumps, energy storage, and advanced heat exchange systems, the waste heat generated from servers can be upgraded and reused for space heating, domestic hot water, or even electricity generation. When connected to local district heating networks, this recovered heat can reduce urban carbon emissions while offsetting operating costs. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

Daily Finland Summary Lidl's parent company, the Schwarz Group, announced plans on Monday to build a new data centre in Germany at a cost of €11 billion, drawing praise from the government as it seeks to boost Germany's artificial intelligence (AI) credentials, reported dpa. The construction project represents the largest single investment in the firm's history, said Christian Müller, the co-chief executive of the firm's digital subsidiary Schwarz Digits. According to the plans, the waste heat generated by the computers will be fed into the district heating network of the regional energy supplier Süll and distributed to district heating customers in Lübbenau and the surrounding area. Continue Reading #News #DistrictEnergy #DataCenter

DCD Summary The UK’s first AI Growth Zone in the village of Culham in Oxfordshire may implement waste heat recycling. The South Oxfordshire District Council, which encompasses Culham, is looking for a third party to conduct a “techno-economic feasibility study” into opportunities arising from a data center’s waste heat. Data center waste heat is primarily used as part of district heating systems. Queen Mary University of London currently uses waste heat from its data center to warm buildings on its Mile End campus, and the government is currently providing support to district heating networks across the UK looking to implement similar measures. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenters #DataCenter

w.media Summary Google has opened a new state-of-the-art data center in Winschoten, Groningen, to support rising global demand for AI-powered services across Google Cloud, Workspace, Search and Maps, and expand the company’s Dutch Cloud region, part of Google’s network of 42 regions worldwide. Google began construction on the Winschoten facility in late 2023 and works with nearly 160 Dutch suppliers, including 77 from Groningen. In a press release , Google emphasized that the Winschoten site was built with energy efficiency and environmental responsibility in mind. The facility can support off-site heat recovery for future district heating systems and is equipped with rooftop solar panels. Advanced air-cooling systems limit water consumption to domestic levels. Continue Reading #News #google #DistrictHeating

MINNPOST Summary During the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, a nearby data center supplied waste heat that kept the pools in the Olympic Aquatics Center warm. It is a vivid example that these facilities, often seen only as power-hungry warehouses , can also be engines of innovation that support communities beyond the digital services they provide. In Minnesota, where winters are long and cold, heat from data centers could someday warm schools, homes and businesses, cutting emissions and lowering bills. But for every example of innovation, there is also tension about where these projects belong. Local concerns regarding proposed data centers in Minnesota have ranged from noise, traffic and energy use to frustrations over transparency . Small- and large-scale data centers now present another opportunity at our doorstep. These facilities are arriving in every corner of the country. We should not treat them as an existential threat but rather approach them as an industry that needs to be carefully integrated into our built environment, towns and neighborhoods so that Minnesotans share in the benefits and are part of the technologies shaping the future. Continue Reading #News #Content #MemberNewsIDEA #EverGreenEnergy #DataCenter

Utility Dive Summary This year, a wave of state laws is reshaping how America builds data centers. Ohio’s HB 15 , effective in August, fast-tracks power build-out and microgrids for large loads. Texas’s SB 6 , in effect since July, makes mega-load data centers responsible for interconnection costs and makes them curtail-ready when the grid is stressed. States now need creativity to meet the moment with respect to data centers: concrete plans for where the power, water and grid capacity will come from, as well as how to create good jobs and benefit communities and the environment. Against this backdrop, we should be thinking about how data centers can stack functions for sustainability, efficiency and community benefit. And state governments, along with the federal government and municipalities, should be thinking about how to maximize these kinds of benefits. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

Burges Salmon Summary Data centres are a booming asset class. Global demand for AI and cloud services is driving unprecedented growth. But continued growth in this area is predicated on a sustainable energy supply and as such, there is also pressure to decarbonise and consider longer term ESG implications. In September 2024, the UK Government designated data centres as part of the country’s critical national infrastructure. As the UK’s infrastructure evolves to meet net zero targets, the convergence of data centres and heat networks presents a unique opportunity for investors. With over £14 billion in UK infrastructure investment backing data centres and heat networks, the opportunity to monetise waste heat is no longer theoretical - it’s investable. At present, district heating systems are the main technology used to utilise waste heat from data centres. These systems are well established across Europe, and in the Nordics in particular. For example, Stockholm Data Parks will use data centre waste heat to supply 35,000 apartments in Stockholm. In London’s Old Oak and Park Royal regeneration area, Hemiko has been selected to develop the UK’s first data centre waste heat network , expected to heat over 9,000 homes. The project has received £36 million from the Green Heat Network Fund, alongside support from the Mayor of London’s Local Energy Accelerator and Green Finance programmes. Paddington Village District Energy Network in Liverpool is working with ...

En Insole Summary Ab has won an order worth over EUR 200 million in the USA: it will supply cogeneration plants with a total capacity of 250 megawatts to power future data centres dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence in Texas and Wyoming. They will be built between 2026 and 2027. The agreement, signed through Ab Energy USA with Conduit Power Llc, an independent power producer and provider of distributed generation solutions, involves the construction in Italy and then the delivery of 75 cogeneration modules equipped with selective catalytic reduction systems to cut CO2 emissions. They will use gas, or biomethane, to produce the electricity needed by the data centres, and are also ready for the eventual use of hydrogen mixtures. Continue Reading #News #CHP #DataCenter