Bloomberg: Germany plans to reuse ‘excess heat’ from data centers

Waste heat produced by German data centers can be reused to heat residential buildings. With such a proposal, according to Bloombergthe German government spoke out, hoping in this way to reduce the carbon footprint in the industry and increase the efficiency of data centers against the background of the energy crisis.

“Data center operators are basically willing to give away their waste heat… The challenge here is to find someone who can economically use it,” said Ralph Hintemann, senior fellow at the Borderstep Research Institute, commenting on the cabinet’s proposal.

The agency’s material notes that the innovative energy initiative requires significant investment in heat pumps, as the heat generated by data centers is “far from being as hot as required by most district heating networks.”

By mid-2025, Frankfurt plans to complete the construction of an experimental Westville residential quarter, 1,300 apartments in which will be heated by waste energy from a nearby data center. Experts attribute the possibility of implementing this project to the fact that the data center is located just 500 meters from the block.

According to market participants, amendments to German data center legislation could oblige their operators to comply with special regulations regarding the design of infrastructure and the financing of energy systems for the removal of waste heat. This may affect the attractiveness of Germany as a country with “specific” data protection laws, thanks to which up to 200 data centers are opened in Germany annually.

Earlier in January, the head of the Federal Network Agency of Germany, Klaus Müller declaredthat Germany’s underground gas storage facilities are more than 90% full. According to him, the indicator was rarely at this level in January – gas consumption in the country decreased by 14%. This could have happened against the backdrop of abnormally warm weather.

More details – in the material “Kommersant FM” “Warm winter came to the aid of Europe”.

Andrey Sapozhnikov