Heat Recovery Project

About this project

Accelerating data center heat recovery projects in Europe

Why

  • Taps directly into any Net Zero strategy
  • The EU Taxonomy urges companies to report their environmentally sustainable economic activities. Energy is a scarce commodity.
  • The data center sector in the European Union is expected to undergo new and rigorous directives (EED) and potentially regulations intended to reduce their carbon emissions. A directive for reuse of data center excess heat launched in 2022. 

 

Participants

Net Zero Innovation Hub members

District Heating Networks

National Energy Department

Balance Responsible Party

Universities

Energy planning companies


Key questions to be addressed

  • How to implement reuse of excess heat into the design of new and existing DC’s if reliability is not to be compromised?
  • Can load shifting go hand in hand with heat reuse?
  • Is reuse of excess heat a sound investment?
  • Standard conditions between a DC and a district heating company?
  • How to optimize DC and district heating efficiencies?
  • What to look for during DC site selection to exploit reuse of heat?
  • Should a DC choose to deliver low temperature excess heat or produce high temperature district heating?
  • A screening tool to evaluate the business case for reuse of heat from a data center?

   

Project objectives

  • Publish a framework & blueprint for planning, modeling & executing heat reuse systems at data center facilities


  • Deliver a simple, clear resource for producers, off-takers, and distribution partners to better educate and inform primary stakeholders


  • Advocate for standardization & acceptance of best-practices of data center heat reuse


  • Development of a DSO/off-taker ecosystem that enables data center heat to be utilized cost effectively


  • Advocate for appropriate heat reuse metrics and the development of appropriate carbon accounting for data center heat reuse stakeholders

 

Project leads


Get in touch with the program leads for any questions relating to the Innovation Hub's data center heat reuse project.

Thomas Volder

Program Lead

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