Recycling heat generated by datacentres 

News: Microsoft has partnered with Fortum, Finnish energy company to launch the world’s largest scheme to provide heat to homes, services and business in Finland with waste heat.

Heat would be sourced from a new data centre region that Microsoft has planned to build in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland. 

How will this work? 

First, excess heat generated by the data centre is captured.

It is transferred from the server cooling process to the district heating system which is a centralised location that captures heat.

The heat is then distributed from the district heating system to buildings for residential and commercial heating needs.   

What is a data centre? 

A data centre is an organization’s physical facility located in a dedicated building. It comprises computers servers, storage systems, etc. which are used to store the data, critical applications and data etc.  

These data centres consume large amounts of energy. Therefore, these physical facilities have temperature controls and energy efficiency systems. 

Around 75% of the electricity that is consumed by a data centre becomes waste heat. 

Therefore, a data centre can be used to heat up to 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter season, similar to a gas boiler. 

What’s the scale of their carbon footprint? 

On a global level, data centres consume more than 1% of the world’s total electricity. Therefore, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), they contribute to 0.3% of all global CO₂ emissions.  

As per Ireland’s energy regulator, the data centres located in Ireland could use almost 30% of the country’s electricity by 2027. Therefore, they are going to endanger the climate goals. 

Why is recycling waste heat important? 

It can provide clean heat or climate friendly waste heat to homes, businesses and public buildings in the cities, for example Microsoft aims to provide it in the Helsinki. 

It can help the countries and cities reach their CO₂ emission reduction targets. For example, it can reduce dependence on the coal-fired heat unit in the cities. 

Which other countries recycle waste heat from data centres? 

Datacentres thrive in cold climates. Therefore, recycled waste heat systems are used for district heating in the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as in Russia and China.  

Which other companies are doing this? 

Facebook is implementing a project in Odense, Denmark.

Apple is planning such a project in Denmark.

H&M has been distributing waste heat to nearby homes in Denmark since 2013.

An IBM data centre in Switzerland is heating a nearby community pool.

In Canada, Quebecor donates its heat to the editorial office of a local newspaper. 

Source: The post is based on an article “Recycling heat generated by datacentres” published in the Hindu on 23rd March 2022.