The data centers of tech giants will soon be able to heat your home
Amid concerns about emissions and a dependence on other countries for energy supplies, many European countries are turning to existing technology to heat homes.
The continent is already home to countless data centers operated by some of the largest technology companies, which consume massive amounts of energy to keep computers warm and servers cool.
The huge amount of heat generated as a by-product of storing our growing database is usually dissipated through the use of air conditioning units or cooling towers, meaning the heat is wasted. However, a growing number of data centers are now using this excess heat to heat homes and buildings.
Heating data centers
In Denmark, Meta has been recovering excess heat from its data center in Odense since 2020 and hopes to heat the equivalent of 11,000 homes next year.
Microsoft, Apple and Amazon have all started planning similar moves, while Alphabet has also committed to exploring the related opportunities.
Ten Dutch data centers are already connected to district heating, which distributes the excess heat to nearby homes and buildings, and fifteen more are in the pipeline.
Using data centers to heat homes has numerous advantages. It reduces the demand for fossil fuels, which are commonly used to heat homes in Europe. Then there’s the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as data centers are often already powered by renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
In France and Denmark, national and local governments are said to have introduced tax incentives for smarter use of excess heat, while some building permits require additional heat to be recovered.
In addition to heating homes, data centers are also used to heat greenhouses, enabling farmers to grow crops all year round. According to Jeroen Burks (via Whole wheat digital (opens in new tab)), the founder of a data center based in the Netherlands, a 180 kW data center would be able to heat up to 5,000 m2 of greenhouse space in the winter months: enough to produce 250 tons of tomatoes.
The use of data centers for heating homes and buildings is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and is expected to increase in the coming years. It is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to heat homes and other buildings, and shows the many ways technology can be used to address some of the recent challenges facing the continent, and even the world .
Through Wall Street Journal (opens in new tab)
