Fortum to use data processing center waste heat for district heating

Energy company Fortum has rolled out a plan to use waste heat from a data processing center for district heating, reported Xinhua, quoting a Finnish language business daily Kauppalehti.

The data processing center, hosted by Fortum, is to be built in the city of Espoo, west of the capital Helsinki.

Waste heat generated in the center will be transformed into thermal power and used to warm homes in Espoo. The thermal power will replace the heat generated in the city's coal and gas-fired power plants, also operated by Fortum.

The center would generate 350 megawatt hours (MWh) of thermal power, which would offset 400,000 tons of carbon emissions per year in district heating. The center will be operational in 2025, according to Fortum.

"Data center operators are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. Therefore, a data center combined with waste heat recovery is of major interest to them," Ilkka Toijala, head of projects and operations at Fortum, told Xinhua on Monday.

Fortum is currently negotiating with data processing companies about the facilities to be installed at the center. The company chosen would invest in the heat recovery systems, while Fortum would handle delivery and processing.

Data centers use huge amounts of electricity, and the thermal energy generated is mostly wasted. District heating networks, common in the Nordic countries, typically use thermal energy, Kauppalehti noted.

Fortum serves 240,000 end users of district heating in areas west of Helsinki alone. In Finnish urban centers, condos and rental buildings rarely maintain their own heating systems, but rather rely on district heating from energy suppliers.

Fortum is exploring ways to store waste heat generated by data processing centers during the warm summer months, Toijala told Xinhua.

Finland has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. Espoo's aim is to be carbon-neutral by 2030.