Data Centers & District Energy

George Mason University Summary George Mason University is taking a major step toward advancing clean energy and digital infrastructure innovation with the launch of the Virginia AI Data Center Research Lab at Mason Square in Arlington. This initiative is made possible through funding from the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank and Virginia Energy. The $1.5 million grant establishes a first-of-its-kind research and workforce development initiative and positions the commonwealth as the national leader in grid-interactive, AI-driven digital infrastructure. Continue Reading George Mason secures $1.5M to launch cutting-edge AI data center research lab #News #DataCenter

KCUR NPR Summary A data center in the Crossroads is using the clean energy loan for its chilling equipment. Supporters hope that the loans will encourage the projects to be more environmentally friendly. Critics want the city to do more to regulate the developments. The green glass building at 1601 McGee towers over the Crossroads. It has sat empty since 2019, when the Kansas City Star closed its printing press there, and was once the Royals’ preference for a downtown ballpark. The loan will be used as financing to optimize the company’s HVAC system, which cools the data center load. That change should reduce the amount of electricity the center consumes over the 20 years of the loan agreement. “It is unclear how its (Patmos’) energy and water needs will impact others who are connected to the downtown district energy system,” Sadowski said. “I am glad to see the KC Star building utilized, but the Crossroads is an important neighborhood for our city, and we need to make sure surrounding residents and businesses are not harmed by this development.” Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

DCD Summary Germany's Dresden University of Technology (TUD) is planning to deploy a new supercomputer from Atos/Eviden at its Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing (ZIH). The new supercomputer will be housed at the university’s Lehmann Center data center at Lehmann Zentrum Rechenzentrum and is expected to go into operation in the fourth quarter of 2026, TUD said in a statement. Like its predecessors, Capella and Barnard, Deneb’s water cooling system will allow 97 percent of the heat generated to be reused to heat nearby buildings or feed into the district heating network. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

Michigan Live Summary The British company Deep Green wants to build a data center in downtown Lansing on the site of two seldom-used municipal parking lots, across the street from a Wendy’s and an oil change place and the Lansing Board of Water and Light’s John F. Dye Water Conditioning Plant. At 24 megawatts, it would use roughly the same amount of power as a small city. But the massive amounts of heat that the data center would produce would serve a second function, heating water for a municipal heating system that serves much of Lansing’s downtown, including a General Motors plant, state of Michigan office buildings and Lansing Community College. The company is billing the project as “a different kind of data center,” and it would be, relative to what’s being proposed and built in the United States. Lee said the company believes this would be the first data center in the U.S. built to recycle the heat it generates into a municipal heating system. Continue Reading #News #MemberNewsIDEA #DataCenter #DistrictEnergy #LansingBoardofWaterandLight #Content

DCD Summary Norwegian data center firm Asp Data Center has partnered with Norwegian utility Lyse to integrate district cooling and heat recovery at its data center in Forus, near Stavanger, Norway. As part of the partnership, Lyse will supply up to 3MW of district cooling services to Asp’s Forus facility, while excess heat from the data center will be supplied into the utility’s district heating network. According to the partners, the proximity of Lyse’s existing infrastructure at Forus makes the heat reuse system technically viable, while access to district cooling reduces the need for traditional cooling systems and associated noise from air-based cooling units. Continue Reading #News #DistrictCooling #DataCenter

Brandsit Summary As recently as two years ago, at the height of AI fever in 2024, there was only one question being asked in boardrooms: ‘Where to get Nvidia processors?’ Chip availability was the bottleneck that dictated the pace of technological development. Today, in January 2026, the situation has changed dramatically. Hardware supply chains have cleared, distributors’ warehouses are full of the latest Blackwell and Ruby chips. Yet new data centre investment is stalling. The question of 2026 is no longer “Do you have the equipment?”, but “Where will you connect it?”. Power Availability has replaced silicon availability as the main operational risk factor. We are entering an era where the success of an AI project is determined by the old analogue power infrastructure rather than digital code. This change is driven not only by physics, but also by EU regulations (EED – Energy Efficiency Directive). Liquid cooling is much more energy efficient and, moreover, allows heat recovery. The fluid leaving the server has a temperature of 60-70°C, which allows the Data Centre to be plugged directly into the municipal district heating network. In 2026, server rooms become de facto digital combined heat and power (CHP) plants, heating office buildings and housing estates, which is key to obtaining environmental permits. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #CHP

Forbes Summary The last decade was about connecting the world; the next one will be about energizing it. AI has accelerated from pilot projects to global infrastructure almost overnight. But the more we automate cognition, the more we strain our ability to power it. A defining change in data center strategy is that more operators are treating power as a core input they can produce. Industry surveys show that by 2030, 27% of all sites will use onsite generation as their primary energy source. Localized generation models range from small, modular power plants and combined heat and power units to advanced microgrids integrating solar, gas turbines, battery storage and fuel cells. In my experience, these models can offer advantages such as control of power quality, fewer interconnection delays and greater resilience against grid congestion. In many cases, the ability to isolate critical loads has become as valuable as compute capacity itself. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter

Corporate Knights Summary When it comes to heat, data centres deliver a double whammy. These massive computing hubs generate a constant torrent of excess heat while simultaneously using vast amounts of power to get rid of it. An estimated 38% to 40% of energy used by data centres goes toward cooling. Heat waste from computing workloads is considered low-grade heat, meaning anything less than 100°C. “With low temperature grades,” says Amin Mohammadi, a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University’s Laboratory for Alternative Energy Conversion, “converting that energy to thermal energy or cooling energy would be the best option that you have.” In other words, it’s too gentle to be converted to electricity such as with steam from a boiler, but with the help of heat pumps, it’s perfect for making a hot shower or keeping interiors toasty on a cold day. There are data centres and centralized district heating systems working together, too, such as Stockholm Exergi or Denmark’s Fjernvarme Fyn. This application could play an important role in heat-waste recovery from the growing demand for computing capacity. A recent Leafcloud white paper outlined that different thermal outputs could be optimized for different applications: high-performance computing for higher heat-waste temperatures, such as 60°C to 80°C, could be sent to district heating, whereas standard servers that produce temperatures in the 40°C to 60°C range could be used for building heat. Continue Reading ...

DieSachsen Summary Artificial intelligence requires enormous computing power. TU Dresden is therefore planning a new supercomputer. "Deneb" is the name of the system with 184 high-performance chips, which is due to be launched at the end of 2026. Particularly sustainable: 97 percent of the computing heat flows into the district heating network and heats buildings in the surrounding area. Artificial intelligence has long been part of our smartphones, translating texts and recognizing faces in photos. But behind these everyday applications are huge computing machines that take months to learn. One such supercomputer is now being built at the Technical University of Dresden. "Deneb" is the name of the new system, which will be conducting research from the end of 2026. Continue Reading #News #District Heating #DataCenter #DistrictHeating

Gadget Review Summary Estimates suggest Bitcoin mining consumes between 91 and 176 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year. That’s nearly 0.5% of global electricity usage, roughly on par with entire countries like Norway or Poland. Unsurprisingly, these figures have drawn heavy criticism from environmental groups. But there is a lesser-known side effect of all that energy use: heat. Bitcoin mining generates substantial warmth, which until recently was simply wasted. If that byproduct could be captured and reused, it might serve as an alternative heat source—one that could help supplement traditional heating systems during the winter months. In Marathon’s case, the process involved an air-to-water heat exchanger that captured warmth released by mining servers and used it to heat water to around 25–35°C. That water was then piped to a district heating center, where its temperature was raised to approximately 80°C. From there, the heat was distributed through underground pipelines to nearby homes. In effect, the servers performed double duty: mining Bitcoin and heating communities. This project is just one example of how mining operations could use innovation to offset part of their environmental impact. If more companies adopted similar systems, the benefits could extend beyond lower emissions—creating new revenue streams for miners and more affordable heating options for households worldwide. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #District ...

the Gazette Summary The Dec. 2, 10 p.m. news update on the new Cedar Rapids data center triggered my curiosity to learn more by using my AI learning partner. The following information is offered to build knowledge and future focused wisdom. While we should applaud the $1.75 billion QTS investment in Cedar Rapids, we must look beyond the price tag to the plumbing. The news that QTS will use their "Freedom" water-free cooling design is a massive victory for our aquifers. It proves that when industry innovates, our resources are protected. But water is only half the equation. The other half is heat. In Groningen, Netherlands, QTS uses this exact same cooling technology to do something remarkable: they capture the "waste" heat from servers and pipe it into a district heating grid, warming over 10,000 homes. In Cedar Rapids, without a similar commitment, that valuable energy will be vented into the Iowa sky, therefore contributing to climate change in future years. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating

DCD Summary Finland’s E-Heat has deployed a containerized data center and plugged it into the local heating network in Western Finland. Finnish energy firm Vatajankoski recently announced that a new data center operated by E-Heat has been completed in the Kirkkokallio eco-industrial park area in Honkajoki. The majority of the district heating in the Honkajoki agglomeration will be produced using data heat without combustion in the future. I would like to thank everyone involved in the project, especially E-Heat, Priatech, Sähkö-Domino, and the Vatajankoski team for their good cooperation in this project,” said Ari Niemi, district heating manager at Vatajankoski. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

Cogeneration Channel Summary Data centers generate large amounts of low-temperature waste heat that can be turned into an energy resource. In Europe, particularly in the Nordic countries, it is now common practice to integrate data centers with district heating systems, to the point that in some EU regions heat recovery is a mandatory requirement to obtain construction permits. In the United States, the data center market is growing rapidly but often develops independently from the energy system. This scenario creates significant opportunities for combined heat and power (CHP), which can provide reliable energy while recovering the heat produced. The integration of data centers, cogeneration, and distributed energy represents a concrete lever to make these infrastructures more efficient and sustainable. Speaker Rob Thornton President and Chief Executive Officer , IDEA #News #MemberNewsIDEA #CHP #DistrictEnergy #DataCenter #DataCenters #Content

The Energy Mix Summary In wintry Nordic countries like Finland and Sweden, some people are warming up to the idea of having data centres as neighbours, but concerns about “sustainable digitization” linger. Data centres in several countries with colder climates are channelling excess heat from their facilities through underground piping to warm nearby homes, Bloomberg News reports . Kai Mykkanene, mayor of Espoo, Finland’s second-largest city, said a new cluster of Microsoft data centres soon to be connected to the city’s district heating network will help eliminate local carbon emissions by 2030. Continue Reading #News #DataCenter #DistrictEnergy

IT Brief Summary Equinix has been named a Leader in a new global assessment of data centre sustainability by research group IDC MarketScape. The study is IDC's first worldwide evaluation of sustainability practices among data centre services providers. It assesses strategy and execution over a three to five-year period and in the near term. IDC cites waste heat reuse as one area of progress. Equinix exported 14.5 GWh of residual heat from its data centre operations in 2024. This represented a 245% increase over the previous year. Sites in Helsinki, Toronto and Paris supplied excess thermal energy into municipal district heating systems and local community facilities. Continue Reading #News #Equinix #DataCenter

The A Register Summary The way that organisations plan, design and run a datacentre was already under pressure. AI has turned that pressure into a once-in-generation stress test, one that is inspiring a top-to-bottom rethink of what the datacentre does, how it does it, and where. AI factories are inevitably power-hungry by design. Energy strategy – always important – becomes a first-order architectural decision. Strong frames this decision in two stages. “If we’re talking huge amounts of power, the first thing you’ve got to consider is where you’re going to get that power from,” he says. “The second is what you’re going to do with the heat that comes off those platforms – and how you’re going to reuse it.” HPE’s partnership with Danfoss is aimed squarely at that second question. The companies are combining HPE’s modular datacentres with Danfoss heat reuse technology to cut datacentre energy consumption and route excess heat into local heating systems. HPE’s modular facilities use direct liquid cooling to reduce overall energy consumption by 20 percent, while Danfoss heat reuse modules can capture that “waste” thermal energy and feed it into district heating networks or industrial applications. Continue Reading #News

Today Summary From emails to social media to online shopping, banking and chatting — everything we rely on everyday goes through an AI data center. The biggest concentration of those centers anywhere in the world sits in Loudon County, Virginia, where two-thirds of the world’s internet traffic flows. Reporting for TODAY, NBC’s Tom Costello shares an inside look at the Digital Realty Innovation Lab that houses the servers and processors that power the internet and AI. Watch Report #News

Yahoo! Finance Summary Enhanced geothermal startup Fervo Energy has raised $462 million to complete its first large-scale power plant and begin development on several others as it races to provide electricity to a power-hungry grid. The new funds will help the company continue work on its 500-megawatt Cape Station power plant in Utah while starting development on several others, Sara Jewett, senior vice president of strategy at Fervo, told TechCrunch. Fervo has an existing deal with Google to supply it with electricity for its data centers. Continue Reading #News #GeothermalandGeo-Exchange

StateTech Summary Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI , is putting stress on the power and cooling capacities of data centers around the world. With state and local governments embracing AI for a growing range of workloads, the pressures around on-premises power use have never been greater. The cloud’s not an easy solution either. The amount of data used can be prohibitively expensive. Some state and local governments are thinking outside the box for a solution, and one answer is microgrids: small electrical networks that can help meet power needs for their facilities. Continue Reading #News #Microgrids #DataCenter

Pulse 2.0 Summary Trane Technologies announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Stellar Energy’s Digital business from Stellar Energy International, marking a significant expansion of its capabilities in data center thermal management. The deal brings one of the sector’s leading turnkey liquid-to-chip cooling providers under the Trane Technologies umbrella as demand for scalable and energy-efficient data center infrastructure continues to accelerate globally. Continue Reading #News #Trane #MemberNewsIDEA #DataCenter

ASU Summary The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Arizona State University and DCX USA, LLC, as key research partners for its Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) program, an innovative national effort led by Idaho National Laboratory to establish novel applications for advanced microreactor technologies. “Data centers are the backbone of our digital future, and the energy they require is growing exponentially,” said George Slessman, founder of DCX. “Through this partnership with ASU and INL, we’re demonstrating that nuclear-powered, AI-optimized infrastructure is not only feasible — it’s essential. This work lays the foundation for sovereign, resilient and infinitely scalable AI capacity built here in the United States.” Continue Reading #News #MemberNewsIDEA #ArizonaStateUniversity #DepartmentofEnergy #DataCenter

Interesting Engineering Summary Global electricity consumption from data centers is accelerating far faster than previously projected, raising new questions about how the world will power the next wave of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Electricity use from data centers in 2024 is estimated at around 415 terawatt-hours, roughly 1.5% of global consumption, and has grown by 12% annually over the past five years. Universities and industrial operators are exploring SMRs and microreactors for combined heat and power applications. A planned microreactor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with Nano Nuclear Energy, aims to supply steam and electricity to campus buildings while offering a platform for research, regulatory licensing, and demonstration of advanced nuclear technologies. Continue Reading #News #News #CHP

DCD Summary A Deutsche Telekom data center has started supplying waste heat to a district heating system in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany. The waste heat is being supplied to the Pallasseum, a listed 1970s building with 500 apartments and approximately 2,000 residents. PASM Power and Solution GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, Gewobag, and the GASAG Group, installed the system. “The energy transition won’t be decided solely in new buildings, but above all in existing ones. The Pallasseum impressively demonstrates how we can intelligently integrate unused energy sources, such as server waste heat, into existing systems,” said Matthias Trunk, sales director of GASAG. Continue Reading #News #DistrictHeating #DataCenter

PR Newswire Summary SWEP , part of Dover and a world-leading supplier of brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs), today announced the launch of two new products, SWEP B327 and SWEP B224, developed to meet growing market demand in data center cooling and district energy applications. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) on the rise, power and processing in data centers require efficient alternatives to traditional air cooling. Both new products, which expand the range of SWEP liquid cooling solutions for data centers, are developed for single-phase applications such as data center cooling and district heating, with shared design features including large ports for high flow rates, low pressure drop, and high thermal efficiency. Continue Reading #News #MemberNewsIDEA #SWEP #DataCenter

tanahair Summary The latest report from Project InnerSpace, entitled The Future of Geothermal in Indonesia, reveals that Indonesia’s geothermal energy potential is 2,160 gigawatts (GW). This finding opens up enormous opportunities for Indonesia to use geothermal energy not only as a source of electricity but also as a provider of industrial heat and district cooling systems for industrial estates, new cities, and data centres. Geothermal district cooling is considered highly suitable for supporting the growth of data centres and industrial cities in Indonesia. This technology can reduce cooling electricity consumption by 50–70%, provide cleaner air, and reduce the burden on the electricity grid. Continue Reading #News #GeothermalandGeo-Exchange #DataCenter #DistrictCooling