Waste heat from data centres will cover the needs of 800,000 households
When fully operational, up to 9.5 TWh of thermal energy could be recovered from this infrastructure in Italy, the equivalent of 2.3 million heat pumps
by Cheo Condina
Decarbonising cities, and the residential sector in general, by recovering the waste heat from data centres that would otherwise be dispersed and thus preventing homes from producing CO2 to satisfy their needs. According to experts, this is one of the most promising levers, at a systemic level, to exploit the development of these infrastructures in a systemic perspective, circularity and green transition, with synergic planning between digital development and energy strategies.
The calculations of the A2A and TEHA study say that, in the best scenario, up to 9.5 TWh of thermal energy per year could be recovered from data centres located near existing or planned district heating networks. This would be enough to cover the annual thermal needs of about 800,000 households - of which over 530,000 in the Milan Metropolitan City alone - contributing to avoiding up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents each year. The latter result can be translated into two other numbers, perhaps more popular: it represents 5% of the current direct emissions of the Italian residential sector, but it is also equivalent to the result that would be obtained by installing 2.3 million heat pumps (or 55% of the total fleet by 2024).
Projects from Finland
There is no shortage of virtuous cases in this field, and as is often the case in the Nordic countries, such as Finland, where in the municipality of Mantsala, the connection of a 75 MW data centre of the Nebius Group to the local district heating network has made it possible to meet the heating needs of 2,500 homes, while also reducing energy costs for citizens. Another, larger-scale project was launched in 2023 by Microsoft, which acquired a 22-hectare area near Helsinki with the aim of building a new data centre connected to the district heating network of the city of Espoo. Once operational, the facility will be able to cover up to 40% of the heating needs of the local population, i.e. around 100,000 inhabitants.
The role of A2A
In Italia, A2A si è mossa, sia a Milano sia a Brescia. Nel capoluogo lavora con Retelit e DBA gruppo per recuperare e immettere nella rete di teleriscaldamento, che alimenta il municipio 6, il calore di un data center in costruzione da 3,2 MW, peraltro in un contesto urbano denso e fortemente energivoro. A Brescia, invece, quest’estate ha inaugurato nella centrale Lamarmora un nuovo data center progettato dalla società francese Qarnot che, grazie a un avanzato sistema di raffreddamento a liquido, consente di recuperare energia termica a temperature elevate, fino a 65 gradi, da immettere direttamente in rete per portare calore agli edifici. In tutto, il recupero termico sarà in grado di soddisfare il fabbisogno di oltre 1.350 appartamenti equivalenti, evitando l’emissione di 3.500 tonnellate di anidride carbonica.
