Good Idea: Data centers that heat homes

https://news.infomaniak.com/en/infomaniak-inaugurates-a-revolutionary-data-center-that-recovers-100-of-its-energy-for-building-heating/

Data centers convert electricity into heat as a byproduct. Almost every facility in the world then gets rid of that heat by releasing it into the atmosphere. Infomaniak, a Swiss cloud provider, built a data center in Geneva that instead pipes 100% of that waste heat into the city's district heating network, warming around 6,000 homes per year and avoiding 3,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually that would otherwise come from burning gas.
The technical setup: servers heat air to 40-45 degrees Celsius, an air/water exchanger transfers that to a water circuit, heat pumps raise the temperature enough to feed the district network, and the cooled water loops back to regulate server temperature -- no air conditioning needed. The whole system is built underground beneath a residential cooperative with no visible footprint above ground.
The full documentation, including real-time performance monitoring and a replication guide for other operators, is published openly at d4project.org. Infomaniak is actively looking for more heating networks to connect future data centers to.
The model already works at 25% capacity. At full capacity by 2028 it will run 10,000 servers across 1,800 square meters.

#AI #Sustainability #datacenter #openHardware #futurism #EnergyTransition #CloudComputing #DistrictHeating #OpenSource #DigitalEcology

With Underground Thermal #EnergyStorage, or simply "#Geothermal Storage", bulk quantities of hot or cold water gets stored underground with modest energy leakage.

A very salient use case is using #Solar powered heat pumps during summer to heat up water for geothermal storage. Then during winter, this hot water can be tapped to heat homes and #DistrictHeating networks. This is #SeasonalEnergyStorage for solar.

Renewable heat displaces gas.

#Energy #EnergyTransition
https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/underground-thermal-energy-storage-a-key-enabler-of-the-energy-transition/

This new #Geothermal heating plant is set to start delivering heat to the local #DistrictHeating network this year. With any luck, just in time for the upcoming winter.

Destroying demand for Fossil Gas requires substitution in power generation but also in space heating in particular. It also helps that geothermal resources for the #GeothermalHeatPump are more widespread than for geothermal power.

#Energy
https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/construction-tops-out-on-geothermal-heating-plant-in-hamburg-germany/

German municipality heating planning advances as mid-year deadline looms

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/german-municipality-heating-planning-advances-mid-year-deadline-looms #heating #districtheating #renewables #fossilfuels #natgas

Poland and Germany break ground on pioneering cross-border district heating project

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/poland-and-germany-break-ground-pioneering-cross-border-district-heating-project #districtheating #EnergyUnion #renewables #heating
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/poland-and-germany-break-ground-pioneering-cross-border-district-heating-project

How did France and Denmark do it during the 70s oil crisis? Essentially by making sure it affected everyone and just getting on with it.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/13/fixing-the-same-issue-first-big-oil-crisis-middle-eastern-wars
#renewables #districtheating #bikes

"Two professors of energy studies – one British, the other Swedish – explore the very different histories of home heating in their countries."

https://theconversation.com/cold-and-expensive-v-hot-cheap-and-eco-friendly-the-contrasting-histories-of-home-heating-in-the-uk-and-sweden-275417

#InsulateBritain #EnergyEfficiency #DistrictHeating #HeatPumps #UnitedKingdom