RENEWABLE ENERGY INTEGRATION
www.heatingandventilating.net
We can only solve the challenges of Net Zero by working together
Tim Mitchell, sales director of Klima-Therm, explores the symbiotic relationship between data centres and heat networks and explains how, through lateral thinking and collaboration, we can optimise resources and reduce waste heat
a Google search. It is thought that by 2027, the AI industry could consume as much energy as a country the size of the Netherlands. A typical large data centre will generate 20 to
T
he UK has around 14,000 heat networks servicing approximately 480,000 homes and businesses and meeting about 3% of total
heat demand. By 2050, the government wants this figure to rise to 20%. While heat networks hold great potential to deliver low carbon heating, currently almost all are powered by fossil fuels. The need to heat buildings contrasts with the need to cool data centres – physical storage facilities that house the IT equipment and hardware required to support our growing reliance on AI and the internet. Data centres generate heat as a byproduct and huge amounts of energy is consumed in the cooling process. By capturing and re- distributing this heat, we can meet two urgent needs – improving the energy efficiency and sustainability of critical infrastructure while providing a low carbon heating source for adjacent buildings.
The waste heat opportunity
Data centres are among the most rapidly growing sources of waste heat, with their use rocketing by more than 250% over the last five years. Large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, and generative AI, uses 10 times more electricity than
50MW of heat, while a data centre ‘campus’ can produce up to 300MW – enough for a medium-sized city. Around 40% of total operation costs come from the energy required for cooling. Running 24/7, data centres are a consistent and reliable source of waste heat - contrary to other types of low carbon heating, such as renewable energy, which is dependent on fluctuating weather conditions.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Data centre waste heat recovery is already proving successful in Europe, with 17,000 district heating systems serving 67 million people across the continent. Stockholm is at the forefront of this movement, with its robust district heating network that began in the 1950s. By 2030, it is expected the city’s entire 3,000km heat network, spanning 300km, will be fed by renewable and recovered sources.
In the UK, heat networks and heat reuse are gaining traction. London’s £21m SWAN project will recover heat from the London Underground and the River Thames to serve properties across Westminster. Queen Mary University has tapped into the potential of data centres, exporting heat from its onsite facility to provide hot water on campus. In Exmouth, data centre heat recovery has helped a public swimming pool reduce its gas consumption by more than 60%, resulting in a £30,000 a year saving for LED Community Leisure, who run the pool.
Smart cities
We are seeing shift towards smaller, local data centres, or ‘edge’ facilities. Deployed in urban areas, edge data centres minimise delay in data transmission while also providing a potential heating source for neighbouring properties. This approach accelerates the ‘smart city’ model, where the waste of one asset is used by another. Planning laws can present hurdles, but Labour’s planning reforms are set to loosen the rules for
16 August 2025
nationally significant infrastructure projects. Klima Therm worked on a data centre project in Tower Hamlets, London, for example, where planning conditions required the installation of a heat recovery loop to serve a nearby residential development.
Heat pump integration
Excess heat from servers is typically low- temperature and low-grade, making it difficult to reuse directly. Heat pumps overcome this challenge by absorbing thermal energy from lower temperature sources and transferring it to higher temperature environments. A typical industrial heat pump can raise temperatures to 80°C or more, while multi-stage heat pumps can achieve temperatures of 150°C or higher. Advanced heat pumps, such as four-pipe systems, offer simultaneous and independent cooling and heating from the same plant. Cooling systems can easily become a complete HVAC solution, even including domestic hot water production, thereby obtaining a double output from a single unit. Flexible heat pump solutions can transfer heat
from server rooms and either re-purpose it, store it for later use or release it outside, reducing the need for additional power-hungry cooling equipment. The process of recovering waste heat from a cooling system can actually be more efficient than rejecting heat by traditional means at certain times of the year, contributing to the sustainability of the data centre while reducing reliance on fossil fuels for domestic heating. The best approach involves capturing heat from
various sources within data centres, including exhaust air, circulating water and coolants. Heat can then be transferred to a heat exchange system, where heat pumps or other heating systems raise the temperature to the desired level before distribution through dedicated networks to end- users.
By thinking laterally about the challenges of net
zero and working together, we can create ‘smart’ infrastructure, with multiple needs being met and wastage offset by usage. As the saying goes, no man is an island: it’s time we viewed the powerhouses of the modern age in the same way.
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