A new concept, currently undergoing testing in Norway, will try using waste heat from data centres to create ‘energy positive' cities. Vast data-processing centres, such as those used by Google or Amazon, have become notorious for the amounts of power they consume in their computer servers and the heat they have to dissipate. The pilot project will take that excess and use it to power district cooling, and then funnel the cooled water back into the data centre to cool equipment.
The project is being piloted in the municipality of Os, outside of Bergen, according to a June 24 story published at itp.net. The municipality aims to become the first ever positive energy city. The project could provide energy to a city of up to 18,000 people from a 2MW, 200 rack data centre.
The original story is here.