Planned datacenter will recycle heat to warm homes • The Register

Nordic datacenter operator atNorth says its subsequent facility – the largest up to now – is to characteristic a warmth reuse scheme for large-scale greenhouses and native housing.

The brand new campus close to Billund Airport in Denmark, branded DEN02, is being designed to cater for data-intensive companies corresponding to hyperscalers and firms trying to run AI and high-performance compute (HPC) workloads.

Set to increase to a number of hundred megawatts of capability, the bit barn campus can have an preliminary capability of 250 MW when it opens, which is not anticipated earlier than the tip of 2026, atNorth instructed us. Denmark has a median imply temperature of seven.7˚C (46˚F).

In keeping with many different modern datacenter tasks, this one is being constructed with an eye fixed to larger sustainability and the surroundings, so will implement a warmth reuse scheme.

This aspect of issues might be dealt with by way of an settlement signed with Wa3rm, an organization that will get concerned with the event of “round industrial tasks,” and can oversee the recycling of extra warmth from the DEN02 website to be used in greenhouses for vegetable manufacturing.

There are additionally plans to supply heating and scorching water for native communities by way of the district heating provider, however atNorth instructed The Register that whereas it’s in discussions with potential purchasers, there’s nothing to announce presently.

Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO of Iceland-based atNorth, claimed the DEN02 website is being designed to function a blueprint for future datacenters.

“The extremely vitality environment friendly design, together with its state-of-the-art warmth reuse applied sciences, coupled with the advantageous location in Denmark and our dedication to sustainability, exemplifies innovation in our trade. It will likely be a super location for hyperscalers and AI companies trying to decarbonize their high-performance workloads,” he claimed.

Together with different datacenter operators, atNorth is trying to supply renewable vitality to supply energy for the infrastructure in its amenities, and this may doubtless take the type of wind and photo voltaic vitality farms across the DEN02 website.

Schemes to reuse waste warmth from datacenters have develop into extra widespread over the previous few years, particularly in Europe the place the EU’s Power Effectivity Directive (EED) requires operators to consider finest observe on vitality effectivity.

Nevertheless a report from digital commerce affiliation TechUK earlier this 12 months warned of the potential pitfalls in utilizing datacenter waste warmth for district heating functions, such because the comparatively low temperatures concerned and uncertainty in how a lot warmth a website might produce over time.

This hasn’t stopped schemes together with these in Groningen, the Netherlands, and separate tasks deliberate by Google and Microsoft in Finland.

But as The Register has famous earlier than, probably the most uncommon warmth reuse scheme we’re conscious of is a datacenter in Hokkaido, Japan, which makes use of snow to chill its IT infrastructure then makes use of the ensuing heat meltwater to domesticate eels on the market at market.

Please tell us when you encounter another uncommon use circumstances. ®