A2A, in partnership with Qarnot, is opening a data centre from which heat is recovered

A2A has opened a new data centre at the Lamarmora power station in Brescia, designed by the French company Qarnot. Thanks to an advanced liquid-cooling system, the centre recovers thermal energy at high temperatures – up to 65 °C – which is fed directly into the grid to supply heat to buildings.

The project is one of the first applications in Italia of heat recovery from data centres, and the first in a city-wide network to use innovative liquid cooling technology; it addresses a global energy challenge: harnessing the waste heat from digital infrastructure – which is constantly expanding and highly energy-intensive – to produce useful thermal energy for cities.

“The rapid expansion of data centres and the growing electrification of consumption require significant investment in electricity networks to meet the increased demand for energy. But it also presents an extraordinary opportunity for cities with district heating networks: to recover waste heat from servers and convert it into thermal energy,” explained A2A’s CEO, Renato Mazzoncini: “The pilot project with Qarnot that we are launching today is proof that integrating energy recovery into the design of data centres from the outset means creating strategic infrastructure for the future: more competitive cities, more sustainable regions, and heat available where it is needed, without the need for fossil fuels.”

“Once again, Brescia has proved itself to be a ‘laboratory city’, trialling increasingly advanced technologies to reduce CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere,” added Laura Castelletti, Mayor of Brescia: “Just as was the case with district heating in the 1970s, when Brescia, together with ASM, was the first in Italia to make this infrastructure available to its citizens, today we are launching a new technology that refines our strategies for tackling air pollution and marks a step forward towards the city’s decarbonisation.”

“This first project carried out in Italia represents a strategic milestone for Qarnot,” explained Paul Benoit, CEO and co-founder of Qarnot: “Made possible thanks to our partnership with A2A, it enables us to meet the growing demand in the Italian market for high-performance computing (HPC) cloud solutions that are energy-efficient and capable of ensuring a high level of technological autonomy. Our infrastructure is particularly well-suited to sectors such as the automotive, aerospace, energy and maritime sectors, and, more generally, all simulation-intensive industries: fields that require not only computing power, but also data control and security. Our model enables us to cover the entire HPC cloud value chain, from the design of low-emission infrastructure to the provision of high-performance computing services. By designing data centres capable of generating reusable heat, we combine performance, sustainability and the creation of value for the local community.”